Don Daniels
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 3592359 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Don Daniels |
| PRENOMES | Don |
| SOBRENOME | Daniels |
| ASSINATURA | DANIELS D |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Oregon |
| VERIFICADO | Não |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 12 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 1 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 12 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2014 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 1 |
Semi-embedded clauses in Aisi
This paper examines a construction in Aisi (Trans New Guinea) which consists of a formally subordinate clause that expresses asserted meaning. This construction is called ‘semi-embedding’. The construction is more restricted than subordinate clauses, and serves a specific discourse function: it presents the information in the matrix clause as a surprising climax. The paper argues that semi-embedding arose when the backgrounding function of subord…
Diachrony and Diachronica
The phonetics of vowel intrusion in Sgi Bara
We provide a phonetic examination of intrusive vowels in Sgi Bara [jil]. These vowels are inserted in predictable places, and their quality (either [i], [ɨ], or [u]) is also predictable, so they are not considered phonemic. We demonstrate that they differ from phonemic vowels in their duration, being shorter; and in their articulation, being more peripheral; but not in their intensity. We then demonstrate how this phonetic understanding of the di…
Unusual Categories Can Be Stable
I reconstruct the kinship terminology of Proto-Sogeram, the ancestor to ten languages of Papua New Guinea, and describe how it has changed in the history of the family. Two patterns are of theoretical interest. One is a recurrent pattern of equating elder siblings with parents, manifested in equations between grandparents and aunts and uncles, and between siblings-in-law and parents. The second is an equation between consanguineal and affinal sib…
The issue of arbitrariness in syntactic reconstruction
Practitioners of syntactic reconstruction have not acknowledged that arbitrariness and iconicity influence syntactic change, and that they therefore need to be incorporated into methods of reconstruction. I argue that iconicity creates a directional tendency in syntactic change, privileging structures that are more iconic. I propose a method for incorporating this fact into methods of syntactic reconstruction. I demonstrate the application of thi…
The history of tense and aspect in the Sogeram family
This paper presents an overview of the tens-aspect system in the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Taking the Proto-Sogeram reconstruction in Daniels ( 2015 , 2020 ) as a starting point, I outline the innovations that have taken place in daughter languages and discuss the patterns of change that emerge. The study confirms a variety of known cross-linguistic tendencies, such as the common occurrence of the analytic-to-synthetic and aspect-to-…
The History of *=a
This paper discusses the historical borrowing of an enclitic across unrelated Papuan languages spoken along the lower Sogeram River in the Middle Ramu region of present-day Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The enclitic *=a, which attached to the right edge of a prosodic unit, was borrowed from the Ramu family into the ancestor of three modern Sogeram languages. Both morphological and prosodic substance were borrowed, as was the dual functionali…
Using phonotactics to reconstruct degrammaticalization
The principle of directionality is an important part of the comparative method: in order to arrive at a reconstruction, historical linguists need a robust theory that informs them in what direction linguistic change is likely to proceed. But any such theory will have exceptions. How are these to be spotted? I examine one case in which a counter-directional change, degrammaticalization, can be reconstructed by invoking the phonotactics of the prot…
Repartitioning
We present a new phenomenon in inflectional morphology, ‘repartitioning’, based on data from Soq (Trans New Guinea). In repartitioning, the semantic boundary between two sets of morphological forms is redrawn in a single domain; one feature value takes over part, but not all, of the meaning of the other. In Soq the boundary is redrawn between the yesterday past tense and the hodiernal; the domain is the lexeme s-‘stay’. For this one verb, the yes…
A method for mitigating the problem of borrowing in syntactic reconstruction
Most scholars agree that grammatical borrowing is a serious obstacle to syntactic reconstruction, but to date there have been few proposed solutions to this methodological conundrum. In this paper I propose a method, couched in a constructional view of language, for mitigating the problem of borrowing in syntactic reconstruction. The method begins with the reconstruction of partially schematic constructions, whose phonological material can be tes…
Complex coordination in diachrony
This paper presents two innovations in the clause chaining system of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. In the first, chain-final morphology was reanalyzed as chain-medial morphology with different-subject switch reference meaning. In the second, common collocations of two verbs in a clause chain were reanalyzed as constituting a single compound verb stem. Previously, scholars held that increased structural integration of clauses necessar…
Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics
International audience
Repartitioning
We present a new phenomenon in inflectional morphology, ‘repartitioning’, based on data from Soq (Trans New Guinea). In repartitioning, the semantic boundary between two sets of morphological forms is redrawn in a single domain; one feature value takes over part, but not all, of the meaning of the other. In Soq the boundary is redrawn between the yesterday past tense and the hodiernal; the domain is the lexeme s-‘stay’. For this one verb, the yes…
Complex coordination in diachrony
This paper presents two innovations in the clause chaining system of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. In the first, chain-final morphology was reanalyzed as chain-medial morphology with different-subject switch reference meaning. In the second, common collocations of two verbs in a clause chain were reanalyzed as constituting a single compound verb stem. Previously, scholars held that increased structural integration of clauses necessar…
Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics
International audience
A method for mitigating the problem of borrowing in syntactic reconstruction
Most scholars agree that grammatical borrowing is a serious obstacle to syntactic reconstruction, but to date there have been few proposed solutions to this methodological conundrum. In this paper I propose a method, couched in a constructional view of language, for mitigating the problem of borrowing in syntactic reconstruction. The method begins with the reconstruction of partially schematic constructions, whose phonological material can be tes…
Using phonotactics to reconstruct degrammaticalization
The principle of directionality is an important part of the comparative method: in order to arrive at a reconstruction, historical linguists need a robust theory that informs them in what direction linguistic change is likely to proceed. But any such theory will have exceptions. How are these to be spotted? I examine one case in which a counter-directional change, degrammaticalization, can be reconstructed by invoking the phonotactics of the prot…
Repartitioning
We present a new phenomenon in inflectional morphology, ‘repartitioning’, based on data from Soq (Trans New Guinea). In repartitioning, the semantic boundary between two sets of morphological forms is redrawn in a single domain; one feature value takes over part, but not all, of the meaning of the other. In Soq the boundary is redrawn between the yesterday past tense and the hodiernal; the domain is the lexeme s-‘stay’. For this one verb, the yes…
The history of tense and aspect in the Sogeram family
This paper presents an overview of the tens-aspect system in the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Taking the Proto-Sogeram reconstruction in Daniels ( 2015 , 2020 ) as a starting point, I outline the innovations that have taken place in daughter languages and discuss the patterns of change that emerge. The study confirms a variety of known cross-linguistic tendencies, such as the common occurrence of the analytic-to-synthetic and aspect-to-…
The History of *=a
This paper discusses the historical borrowing of an enclitic across unrelated Papuan languages spoken along the lower Sogeram River in the Middle Ramu region of present-day Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The enclitic *=a, which attached to the right edge of a prosodic unit, was borrowed from the Ramu family into the ancestor of three modern Sogeram languages. Both morphological and prosodic substance were borrowed, as was the dual functionali…
The issue of arbitrariness in syntactic reconstruction
Practitioners of syntactic reconstruction have not acknowledged that arbitrariness and iconicity influence syntactic change, and that they therefore need to be incorporated into methods of reconstruction. I argue that iconicity creates a directional tendency in syntactic change, privileging structures that are more iconic. I propose a method for incorporating this fact into methods of syntactic reconstruction. I demonstrate the application of thi…
Unusual Categories Can Be Stable
I reconstruct the kinship terminology of Proto-Sogeram, the ancestor to ten languages of Papua New Guinea, and describe how it has changed in the history of the family. Two patterns are of theoretical interest. One is a recurrent pattern of equating elder siblings with parents, manifested in equations between grandparents and aunts and uncles, and between siblings-in-law and parents. The second is an equation between consanguineal and affinal sib…
Semi-embedded clauses in Aisi
This paper examines a construction in Aisi (Trans New Guinea) which consists of a formally subordinate clause that expresses asserted meaning. This construction is called ‘semi-embedding’. The construction is more restricted than subordinate clauses, and serves a specific discourse function: it presents the information in the matrix clause as a surprising climax. The paper argues that semi-embedding arose when the backgrounding function of subord…
Diachrony and Diachronica
The phonetics of vowel intrusion in Sgi Bara
We provide a phonetic examination of intrusive vowels in Sgi Bara [jil]. These vowels are inserted in predictable places, and their quality (either [i], [ɨ], or [u]) is also predictable, so they are not considered phonemic. We demonstrate that they differ from phonemic vowels in their duration, being shorter; and in their articulation, being more peripheral; but not in their intensity. We then demonstrate how this phonetic understanding of the di…
Linguistics (11 obras) · Philosophy (11 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (9 obras) · Computer Science (8 obras) · History (8 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (8 obras) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (4 obras) · Verb (4 obras) · Language and cultural evolution (3 obras) · Ancestor (2 obras)