Drift and the Grammaticalization Divide between Northern and Southern Wakashan

Bibliographic Data

ID4559585
AuthorsMichael Fortescue (0000-0003-1149-8599, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume72
Issue3
Pages295-324
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of American Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7071 • E-ISSN: 1545-7001
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/509488
OpenAlexW1996748830
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited22

The considerable divergence in inflectional complexity between the northern and the southern branches of the Wakashan family calls out for an explanation. Both branches are equally rich with regard to derivational potential, but only in the northern branch have fine‐grained inflectional systems of clitics evolved for demarcating clausal constituents and expressing grammatical relations between them. These are built upon deictic/demonstrative elements common to both branches and reconstructible for the proto‐language, as is the system of personal pronouns. It is by no means clear a priori whether the northern branch has innovated here or the southern branch has lost material that was once a common inheritance. This paper is concerned with why and how this diverging situation may have come about, and draws upon considerations of grammaticalization pathways, internal "drift," and likely areal influences to suggest that the southern branch—despite the relative paucity and fluidity of its inflectional distinctions—is in fact structurally closer to the proto‐language

Deixis · Demonstrative · Divergence (linguistics · Geography · Grammaticalization · Inheritance (genetic algorithm · Linguistics · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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