scholarly journals Synchrony, diachrony and Greenberg's state-process model: From the viewpoint of typological characterization

2008 ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
Lásló Desző
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
State Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative

After a brief survey of the history of diachronic typology, the author focuses his attention on the typological methods applied to historical comparative linguistics. Then some basic issues of Greenberg's state-process model are examined as a possible model for diachronic typology. Morphological and word-order typology are used for the illustration of the author's statements and comments.

scholarly journals Fennougristiikan historiaa Virittäjän valossa

Virittäjä ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Ylikoski
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Hard Core ◽  
First Century ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
The 19Th Century

Artikkeli tarkastelee yhtäältä 125 vuotta täyttävän aikakauslehti Virittäjän historiaa fennougristiikan valossa, toisaalta fennougristiikan historiaa Virittäjän valossa. Päähuomio on erityisesti suomen etäsukukielten tutkimuksessa. Virittäjässäkin fennougristiikkaa ovat tyypillisimmin edustaneet konkreettiset pyrkimykset suomen ja sen sukukielten menneisyyden valaisemiseksi: keskiössä ovat olleet toisiinsa kietoutuneet etymologia ja äännehistoria sekä niiden kehyksiksi hahmotellut kantakielet eri vaiheineen ja kontaktikielineen. Tämän fennougristiikan kovan ytimen lisäksi Virittäjässä ovat kuitenkin aina olleet näkyvissä myös tieteenalan suuremmat kehykset: yhtäältä pohdinnat siitä, miksi ja miten tällaista tutkimusta harjoitetaan, toisaalta halu kertoa fennougristisen tutkimuksen tuloksista myös suurelle yleisölle. Erityisesti Suomi ja täällä etenkin Virittäjä ovat ympäristöjä, joissa suomalais-ugrilaisten kielten tutkijat ovat kerta toisensa jälkeen eksplisiittisesti pohtineet olemassaolonsa tarkoitusta. Vaikka ala mielletään usein kielihistorian tutkimukseksi, fennougristit ovat aina harjoittaneet myös synkronista kielentutkimusta; myös suomen sukukielten uhan­alaisuuteen ja vähemmistökielten puhujien oikeuksiin on kiinnitetty huomiota jo 1800-luvulta lähtien. Artikkeli keskittyy lähinnä Virittäjän ensimmäiselle vuosisadalle, mutta 2020-luvulle tultaessa fennougristiikka ja sen ilmenemismuodot Virittäjässä ovat muuttuneet lehden yleisilmeeseen verrattuna suhteellisen vähän. On the history of Uralic linguistics in Virittäjä The article provides an account of Virittäjä, the major journal of Finnish linguistics established in 1897, and its relation to the study of Uralic languages during the first 125 years of the journal’s history. At its most typical, the study of Uralic languages has been a branch of historical-comparative linguistics aiming to pursue the distant past of Finnish and other Uralic languages: etymology, historical phonology, questions of proto-languages and their chronology and geography as well as language contacts. Beyond this hard core of Uralic linguistics, Virittäjä has continuously provided a forum for discussing the larger frameworks of the discipline: questions of why and how Uralic linguistics is conducted in the first place. Virittäjä has also provided a forum for Uralicists to communicate the results of their research to scholars of Finnish and the wider general public. Moreover, Finland in general and Virittäjä in particular have traditionally been places where Uralicists have pondered and discussed the purpose of their own existence. In addition to historical linguistics, Uralicists have also engaged in synchronic linguistics, and from as early as the 19th century they have also paid attention to language endangerment and the linguistic rights of minorities. This article focuses mainly on the first century of Virittäjä’s history, though by the 2020s Uralistics and the manifestations of the discipline in the pages of Virittäjä have remained largely unchanged.

scholarly journals Exploring the history of pronouns in South America with computer-assisted methods

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74
Author(s):  
Luis Miguel Rojas-Berscia ◽  
Sean Roberts
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Diagnostic Feature ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
South American ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Tree Inference ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative

Abstract Pronouns as a diagnostic feature of language relatedness have been widely explored in historical and comparative linguistics. In this article, we focus on South American pronouns, as a potential example of items with their own history passing between the boundaries of language families, what has been dubbed in the literature as ‘historical markers’. Historical markers are not a direct diagnostic of genealogical relatedness among languages, but account for phenomena beyond the grasp of the historical comparative method. Relatedness between pronoun systems can thus serve as suggestions for closer studies of genealogical relationships. How can we use computational methods to help us with this process? We collected pronouns for 121 South American languages, grouped them into classes and aligned the phonemes within each class (assisted by automatic methods). We then used Bayesian phylogenetic tree inference to model the birth and death of individual phonemes within cognate sets, rather than the typical practice of modelling whole cognate sets. The reliability of the splits found in our analysis was low above the level of language family, and validation on alternative data suggested that the analysis cannot be used to infer general genealogical relatedness among languages. However, many results aligned with existing theories, and the analysis as a whole provided a useful starting point for future analyses of historical relationships between the languages of South America. We show that using automated methods with evolutionary principles can support progress in historical linguistics research.

The History of General and Comparative Linguistics in 19th Century Russia

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. M. Berezin
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Russian Scientific ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Systematic Character ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
The 19Th Century

Summary The article attempts to demonstrate how problems in general and historical-comparative linguistics were worked out and developed during the 19th century in Russia. Largely following the tradition established by 18th-century Russian scholars, especially M. V. Lomonosov (1711–65), who is regarded as the founder of Russian linguistics, 19th-century linguists displayed a lively interest in investigating the social nature of language. Other key interests of these scholars were the study of the systematic character of language, the development of the phonemic principle (including the distinctive feature concept), the typological study of related and unrelated languages, etc. It is shown that their work generally mirrored the intellectual trends of their period, with biologistic views giving way to sociological and psychological ones, as is evident in the work of N. I. Greč, A. X. Vostokov, A. A. Potebnja, J. Baudouin de Courtenay, F. F. Fortuna-tov, and many others. The intellectual climate of 19th-century Europe allowed for a free exchange of scientific information; thus, in its earlier stages, the Russian scientific scene was sometimes influenced by ideas from the West, whereas it can be said that Russian scholars working in linguistics paid back toward the end of the 19th and in the earlier 20th centuries by furthering research leading to a structural concept of language, the study of morphophonology, typology and language universals as is evident in the theories advanced by members of the Prague and Copenhagen schools.

BRIDGE BUILDING AS A PROBLEM OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN THE EUROPEAN NORTH OF RUSSIA IN THE EARLY XX CENTURY

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-135
Author(s):  
Tatiana S. Minaeva ◽  
Sergey S. Gulyaev
Keyword(s):  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
European North ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Floating Bridge ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Bridge Building ◽  
Xix Century

Introduction. The organization of transport links and the bridge building in cities located on the banks of wide rivers has always been one of the most important tasks of the local administration. The study of the history of bridge building allows not only to trace the process of modernization of different regions of the country, but also to help in solving similar problems of our time. Nevertheless, the history of Russian bridge building is poorly studied. The purpose of the article is to determine the characteristics and features of the organization of bridge building in big cities of the European North of Russia as a way to solve one of the problems of urban infrastructure in the early XX century. Materials and Methods. The sources for this study are the documents of the State archive of the Arkhangelsk region, published documents on the history of Vologda, articles in the local periodicals of the early XX century. The analysis of the studied problem used a systematic approach, the method of economic analysis, historical and historical-comparative methods. Results and Discussion. The building of permanent bridges was a need for the development of Arkhangelsk and Vologda. In Vologda the two wooden bridges were built in the middle of XIX century on city funds and in the future these bridges were repaired or rebuilt. The Arkhangelsk city authorities did not hurry to solve a problem of city infrastructure by own efforts and a long time they used the floating bridge. The lack of experience in the building of large bridges and the desire to save money led to the rapid destruction of the first permanent bridge in Arkhangelsk. Conclusion. The Development of trade and industry in cities of the European North of Russia, such as Arkhangelsk and Vologda, led to the expansion of their territory and the emergence over time, the so-called third parts of the cities. Despite the comparable size of the population of the districts located across the river, the process of connecting them with bridges to the rest of the city went at different rates, which depended on the attitude of the local administration to the problem of urban infrastructure.

Clause Structure and Word Order in the History of German

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

Over roughly the last decade, there has been a notable rise in new research on historical German syntax in a generative perspective. This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of this thriving new line of research by leading scholars in the field, combining it with new insights into the syntax of historical German. It is the first comprehensive and concise generative historical syntax of German covering numerous central aspects of clause structure and word order, tracing them throughout various historical stages. Each chapter combines a solid empirical basis and valid descriptive generalizations with reference also to the more traditional topological model of the German clause with a detailed discussion of theoretical analyses couched in the generative framework. The volume is divided into three parts according to the main parts of the clause: the left periphery dealing with verbal placement and the filling of the prefield (verb second, verb first, verb third orders) as well as adverbial connectives; the middle field including discussion of pronominal syntax, order of full NPs and the history of negation; and the right periphery with chapters on basic word order (OV/VO), prosodic and information-structural factors, and the verbal complex including the development of periphrastic verb forms and the phenomena of IPP (infinitivus pro participio) and ACI (accusativus cum infinitivo). This book thus provides a convenient overview of current research on the major issues concerning historical German clause structure both for scholars interested in more traditional description and for those interested in formal accounts of diachronic syntax.

scholarly journals When research met policy: a history of innovation and a complicated relationship in three Swedish development projects in mathematics education, 1960–2018

ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Prytz
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
School Governance ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Major Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Contemporary Development

AbstractThis paper concerns the relationship between research and governance policy in three Swedish major development projects in mathematics education: the New Math project (1960–1975), the PUMP project (1970–1980), and the Boost for Mathematics project in (2012–2016). All three projects were driven or financed by the Swedish central school authorities. Using a historical comparative method, this study deepens the understanding of how research co-exists with governance policy when preparing innovations in mathematics education. The main historical sources are official reports and governmental decisions concerning the three projects. The analysis is focused on the nature of the innovations of each project and the role of researchers in the process of creating the innovations. The analysis highlights the theories and the methods involved in those processes. The three projects are also positioned in a context of school governance policy. In Sweden, the prevailing school governing policy changed from a highly centralised governance in the 1960s to a highly decentralised governance in the 2010s. The paper concludes by discussing to what degree the researchers adhered to principles of research or school governance; in particular, the Boost for Mathematics project is considered in this regard. The relevance of the paper in relation to the emerging field of implementation research in mathematics education concerns how historical studies can give new insights about contemporary development projects in mathematics education.

scholarly journals Comparative sociolinguistic perspectives on the rate of linguistic change

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Terttu Nevalainen ◽  
Tanja Säily ◽  
Turo Vartiainen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Specific Topic ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Historical Comparative ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

AbstractThis issue of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics aims to contribute to our understanding of language change in real time by presenting a group of articles particularly focused on social and sociocultural factors underlying language diversification and change. By analysing data from a varied set of languages, including Greek, English, and the Finnic and Mongolic language families, and mainly focussing their investigation on the Middle Ages, the authors connect various social and cultural factors with the specific topic of the issue, the rate of linguistic change. The sociolinguistic themes addressed include community and population size, conflict and conquest, migration and mobility, bi- and multilingualism, diglossia and standardization. In this introduction, the field of comparative historical sociolinguistics is considered a cross-disciplinary enterprise with a sociolinguistic agenda at the crossroads of contact linguistics, historical comparative linguistics and linguistic typology.

Political radicalization and fragmentation of the democratic blocs and the legislative council elections in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-384
Author(s):  
Chung Fun Steven Hung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Special Administrative Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legislative Council ◽  
Administrative Region ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
Historical Comparative

Purpose After direct elections were instituted in Hong Kong and the sovereignty was transferred from Britain to China, politicization inevitably followed democratization. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pro-democratic political parties’ politics in Hong Kong in recent history. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted through a historical comparative analysis, within the context of Hong Kong after the sovereignty handover and the interim period of crucial democratization. Findings With the implementation of “One country, Two systems,” political democratization was hindered in Hong Kong’s transformation. The democratic forces have no alternative but to seek more radicalized politics, which has caused a decisive and ineluctable fragmentation of the local political parties. Originality/value This paper explores and evaluates the political history of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under “One country, Two systems” and the ways in which the limited democratization hinders the progress of Hong Kong’s transformation.

Word-order change in progress: the case of Slovene and Serbo-Croat and its relevance for Germanic

1987 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Related Language ◽  
Slavonic Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
Order Change ◽  
The One ◽  
Word Order Change ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Fresh Insight

It will be suggested in this article that Slovene, a South Slavonic language, is on the way to acquiring verb-second (V2) word order. In providing evidence in support of this view I shall compare Slovene, on the one hand, with the closely related language Serbo-Croat and, on the other hand, with relevant details from the history of the Germanic languages. The point of comparing it with Serbo-Croat is to discover the respects in which the word order of these two languages has diverged. Taken together with what is known about the word order of Common Slavonic, the facts emerging from this comparison allow us to identify one major respect in which Slovene has changed and two respects in which it is still changing. At the same time, they reveal a major respect in which Serbo-Croat word order is also changing. The point of comparing Slovene with the Germanic languages is twofold. First, since all the present-day Germanic languages either have or have had V2 word order (Haiman, 1974), it is possible that their history can help us to understand the changes currently taking place in Slovene and to predict how Slovene might change in the future. Secondly, where details of the history of the Germanic languages are poorly understood, the possibility exists of gaining fresh insight into them in the light of the changes that have taken place more recently, or indeed are still taking place, in Slovene. In this connection we shall assess the plausibility of two theories concerning the adoption of V2 word order by the Germanic languages, those of Vennemann (1975) and Wackernagel (1892).

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