Asymmetries in overt marking and directionality in semantic change

Bibliographic Data

ID13060378
AuthorsMatthias Urban (0000-0001-7633-7433, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume1
Issue1
Pages3-47
Publication date2011-06-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Historical Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2210-2116 • E-ISSN: 2210-2124
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/jhl.1.1.02urb
OpenAlexW2064325543
LanguageEN
Citations received11

This article is a contribution to the long standing issue of identifying directionality in semantic change. Drawing on evidence from a sample of morphologically complex terms in basic vocabulary for 149 globally distributed languages, it is argued that cross-linguistically preferred synchronic relationships of word-formation provide clues to likely directions of diachronic semantic developments. The hypothesis is tested against diachronic data from Indo-Aryan languages, and, in spite of a number of counterexamples, a correlation is found. In addition, it is shown how these data can be applied to semantic reconstruction, and a scenario of semantic change which involves morphological complexity in an early stage of semantic development is sketched

Directionality · Semantic change · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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