LIN 591 - Historical Linguistics - Seminar - Spring 1998

Mon 4:40 - 7:30

Elly van Gelderen

Room: LL C217

e-mail: ellyvangelderen@asu.edu

office hours: tba

(voice-mail: 965 2563)

Aim:

(a) to examine the ways different schools look at change and variation, e.g. Neogrammarians, Cognitive Linguists, Generativists and Structuralists.

(b) to examine different approaches to account for change such as Typology, Comparative Method, Internal Reconstruction, Harmony, Renalysis, Grammaticalization. Most of these approaches are connected with a particular school of linguistics, e.g. Structuralism and Harmony, Cognitive Linguistics and Grammaticalization, but not necessarily.

(c) to look at historical issues in different language families, for instance, Uto-Aztecan, Nostratic, Semitic, Old Japanese, Indo-European, Germanic).

Method:

For the first 8 weeks, we will read original articles by people of each of the different directions/approaches (such as Bopp, Grimm, Schleicher, Osthoff & Brugmann for the nineteenth century) as well as textbook chapters (such as Bynon, Pedersen, Robins, Harris & Campbell). After that, we will examine a number of issues in different language families (e.g. ergative/accusative, active/passive, head/dependent marking, but the topics are up to the interests of the students). Students will be expected to read the required reading each week and formulate questions about these. They will also be required to present a review of one of the additional readings. The final paper could focus on either a particular school, a method for examining change or on an issue in a particular language family.

Evaluation:

20%: 12 times 3 questions/critical comments (to be handed in early the day of class and to be used in class).

75%: research paper. In week 12, a first draft of the paper is due. The final paper should be 20 pages and is due the last week

5%: 10 minute presentation of one of the additional readings.

Required texts:

Instructor will make texts available on loan.

Preliminary schedule (revised 31 Jan):

The additional/optional readings are listed for further reading (e.g. if your paper deals with that topic) and for you to select one from for class presentation. If they are book-length, I haven't included them in the package. I have had to change some of the required readings because I could not find English versions.

Jan 26

Week 1: Introduction and Organization.

DIRECTIONS/APPROACHES:

Feb 2

Week 2: The Early C19: Comparative, Typological and `Romantic' Linguistics. Readings: Jones (1786); von Schlegel (1808); Rask (1818) all reprinted/translated in Lehmann (1967: 10-20; 23-8; 31-7); Pedersen 1931 [1959]: 248-77). Optional reading: Bopp (1816); Humboldt (1836); Schleicher (1871), all in Lehmann; Robins chap 6 and 7; Said (1986); Poliakov (1971); Schwab (1950).

Feb 9

Week 3: Post 1870s Neogrammarians: Comparative and `scientific'. Readings: Osthoff & Brugmann (1878), in Lehmann (1967: 198-209); Pedersen (1931 [1959]: 277-310); Bynon (1977: chap 1). Additional reading: Müller (1864: lecture 7); de Saussure, Verner (both in Lehmann 1967: 218-224; 134-160); Waterman (1963 [1970]: 18-60).

Feb 16

Week 4: Structuralism and other eC20 approaches. Readings: on structuralism, Bynon (1977: chap 2, pp.76-107); on `others', Sapir (1921, chap 7; 10). Additional Reading Martinet (1955); Jespersen (1921, chap 14-15); Greenberg (1973).

Feb 23

Week 5: Transformational Generative Phonology. Readings: Kiparsky (1970; 1971); Bynon (1977: 108-47). Additional reading: parts of Chomsky (1966); parts of King (1969).

Mar 2

Week 6: Transformational Generative Syntax. Readings: Lightfoot (1979: 229-239); Kiparsky (1996); van Gelderen (1989). Additional Reading: Lightfoot (1995); Kiparsky (1997); van Gelderen (1997b).

Mar 9

Week 7: Grammaticalization I. Readings: Hopper & Thompson (1993: 18-62; 94-129). [we may have to cut some of this] Additional reading: an article from Traugott & Heine (1991); parts of Gabelentz (1891); Meillet (1912).

Mar 16

Week 8: SPRING BREAK

Mar 23

Week 9: Grammaticalization II and Miscellaneous: Again the Comparative Method; Glottochronology. Readings: Heine et al (1991: 123-147); Hopper & Traugott (1993: 167-221). [we may have to cut some of this] Additional Readings: an article from Traugott & Heine (1991); parts of Ruhlen (1994)

ISSUES IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGE FAMILIES:

Mar 30

Week 10: Issues in Indo-European HL I: Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European. Readings: Lehmann (1993: 140-186); Additional readings: Lehmann (1993: chap 10); parts of Delbrück (1919), or Brugmann (1903 [1933]) or Bopp (1816); Kurylowicz, J. 1964

April 6

Week 11: Issues in Indo-European HL II and Nostratic. Gamkrelidze, T. & V. Ivanov (1994: 233-276); Ruhlen (1994: chap 5)

April 13

Week 12: Issues in Germanic HL (includes OE and ME). Prokosch (1938: 266-285), Kiparsky (1996). Additional readings: a chapter from Haider & Prinzhorn, eds (1986); van Gelderen (1993; 1997a)

April 20

Week 13: Reconstructing the languages of the Americas. Parts of Greenberg (1987). Ruhlen (1994: chap 4).

April 27

Week 14: Issues in African Historical Linguistics. Greenberg (19??); Heine et al. (1984). Student papers.

May 4

Week 15: Student papers

References:

Bopp, F. 1816. Über das Konjugationssystem der Sanskritsprache ...

-- 1833-1868. Vergleichende Grammatik ...

Brugman, K.

Bynon, T. 1977. Historical Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chomsky, N. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics. New York: Harper & Row.

Delbrück, B. 1919. Einleitung in das Studium der Indogermanischen Sprachen, 6th edition.

Gabelentz, G von der 1891. Die Sprachwissenschaft. Leipzig.

Gamkrelidze, T. & V. Ivanov 1994. Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (pp. 185-375)

-- 1995 Part 2

Gelderen, E. van 1989. "The historical rationale behind split infinitives and kindred constructions", Archiv 226.1: 1-18.

Gelderen, E. van 1993. The Rise of Functional Categories. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gelderen, E. van 1997a. Verbal Agreement and the Grammar behind its `Breakdown'. Tübingen: Niemeyer.

Gelderen, E. van 1997b. "The history of reflexives", ms.

Greenberg, J. 1973. "The Typological Method", ed. by T. Sebeok Current Trends in Linguistics 11: 149-93. Den Haag: Mouton.

Greenberg, J. 1987. Language in the Americas. Stanford.

Haider, H. & M. Prinzhorn, eds. 1986. Verb Second Phenomena in Germanic Languages. Dordrecht: Foris.

Heine, B. et al 1991. Grammaticalization. Chicago: Chicago UP.

Heine, B. et al 1984. Grammaticalization and reanalysis in African Languages. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.

Hirt, H. 1927-37. Indogermanische Grammatik, 7 volumes.

Hopper, M. & E. Traugott 1993. Grammaticalization. Cambridge.

King, R. 1969. Historical Linguistics and Generative Grammar.

Kiparsky, P. 1970/1971 [1982]. "Historical Linguistics". Explanation in Phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.

Kiparsky, P. 1996. "Indo-European Origins of Germanic Syntax", in Battye, A. & I. Roberts (eds.) Clause Structure and Language Change. Oxford UP.

Kiparsky, P. 1997. "The Rise of Positional Licensing", in van Kemenade, A. & N. Vincent (eds), Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change. Cambridge: CUP.

Kurylowicz, J. 1964. The Inflectional Categories of Indo-European. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Verlag. (P621.K8)

Lehmann, W. 1967. A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Lehmann, W.P. 1993. Theoretical Bases of Indo-European Linguistics. London: Routledge.

Lightfoot, D. 1979. Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge: CUP.

Lightfoot, D. 1995. "Why UG needs a Learning Theory: Triggering Verb Movement", in Battye, A. & I. Roberts (eds) Clause Structure and Language Change. Oxford: OUP.

Lockwood, W.B. 1969. Indo-European Philology. London: Hutchinson.

Martinet, A. 1955. Economie des Changements Phonétiques. Bern: Francke.

Meillet, A. 1912. "L'evolution des formes grammaticales", reprinted in Meillet 1958 Linguistique Historique et Linguistique Generale.

Meillet, A. 1937 [1903]. Introduction a l'étude comparative des langues indo-européennes, 8th ed. reprinted 1964.

Müller, M. 1864. Lectures on the Science of Language. London: Longman.

Pedersen, H. 1931[1962] The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the 19th Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Poliakov, L. 1971. The Aryan Myth. B&N reprint 1996.

Robins, R.H. 1967. A Short History of Linguistics. London: Longman.

Prokosch, E. 1938. A Comparative Germanic Grammar. Baltimore: LSA.

Ruhlen, M. 1994. The Origin of Language. New York: Wiley.

Said, E. 1984. Orientalism.

Schwab, R. 1950. La Renaissance Orientale. Paris: Payot. [translated by Gene Patterson-Black, The Oriental Renaissance. NY: Columbia UP]

Traugott, E. & B. Heine, eds. 1991. Approaches to Grammaticalization I and II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Waterman, J. 1963 [1970]. Perspectives in Linguistics. Chicago: Chicago UP.

Examples of Paper topics

1. Is Proto IE isolating? Do N and V share original form.

2. The typology of languages that use animate/inanimate. Lehman (1993)

3. An aspect of the grammaticalization of determiners.

4. Reasons behind suppletion, e.g. be/is/am; go/went; good/better; I/me; we/us.

5. The change from ergative to non-ergative.