Nataliya Levkovych - Böcker

The extant generalizations about the grammar of space rely heavily on the analyses of declarative sentences. There is a need to check whether these generalizations also hold in the domain of interrogation. To this end this book analyzes data from some 450 languages (including non-standard varieties). The focus is on paradigms of spatial interrogatives such as English where, whither and whence and their internal organization. These paradigms are checked for recurrent patterns of morphological mismatches (such as syncretism) and different degrees of complexity (e.g. the number of segments). The data-base consists of a large parallel literary corpus (Le petit prince and translations thereof) which is complemented by further sources of information such as descriptive grammars. The data are analyzed from a synchronic perspective. However, diachronic issues are addressed unsystematically, too. It is shown that the distribution of phenomena which characterize paradigms of spatial interrogatives are subject to areal-linguistic factors. This is the first typological study of spatial interrogatives. It provides new insights for students of the grammar of space, morphological paradigms, and language typology.

In contrast to many other levels of language, there is as yet no comprehensive areal-linguistic description of the segmental phonological properties of the languages of Europe.To complement the synchronic picture of the languages of Europe, it is time to take stock of their phoneme inventories to provide an empirical basis for generalizations about the similarities and dissimilarities of the languages of Europe. The best way to visualize the areal phonology of Europe is that of the Phonological Atlas of Europe (Phon@Europe) which features the isoglosses of phonological phenomena on a plethora of maps. As a prequel to Phon@Europe, this study not only outlines the goals, methodology, sample, and theory of the project but also focuses on loan phonemes whose diffusion across the 210 doculects of the sample yields meaningful patterns. The patterns are indicative of recent processes of convergence which have transformed a diverse phonological mosaic into a superficially homogeneous linguistic area. The developments which have led to the present situation are traced back through the history of the sample languages.

For the better understanding of the cultural and linguistic impact of colonialism on the shaping of the world as we know it today it is necessary to take account of the Europeanization of the map of the extra-European countries.To achieve this goal Comparative Colonial Toponomastics (CoCoTop) investigates the place names which were coined in the era of colonialism in the erstwhile possessions of European colonizer nations. This edited volume offers new insights into the toponomastic manifestations of Danish, French, German, Italian, and Spanish colonialism. The focus is on hitherto unexplored macrotoponyms and microtoponyms. Their structural and functional aspects are described. They are linked to the colonial history of the various nations involved. A general toponomastic framework beyond CoCoTop is presented additionally. Several of the papers mark the starting point of recently initiated new research projects.The volume is of special interest to onomasticians, scholars working in colonial and postcolonial linguistics, and historians of colonialism.

The topic of the volume is the contrast between borrowable categories and those which resist transfer. Resistance is illustrated for the unattested emergence of grammatical gender, the negligible impact of English and Spanish on the number category in Patagonian Welsh, the reluctance of replicas to borrow English but. MAT-borrowing does not imply the copying of rules as the Spanish function-words in the Chamorro irrealis show. Chamorro and Tetun Dili look similar on account of their contact-induced parallels. The languages of the former USSR have borrowed largely identical sets of conjunctions from Russian, Arabic, and Persian to converge in the domain of clause linkage. Resistance against and susceptibility to transfer call for further investigations to the benefit of language-contact theory.

The contributions in the edited volume deal with different aspects of language contact which were hitherto not or not sufficiently considered in linguistic research. The impact of the colonial languages Polish and German on the structures of the written varieties of Latvian is surveyed and compared. The opposite case – the impact of indigenous languages of Nigeria and Ghana on the colonial language English – is scrutinized from the perspective of the nexus of language and culture. Language contact in a diasporic context is examined in the case study on Jordanian Chechen. The effects of language contact on the lexicon and grammar of Basque are analyzed. In the in-depth study on Maltese adpositions, the influence of the contact language Italian is a central theme. The morphosyntax of place names is analyzed for the contact languages which typically arise in colonial contexts – Pidgins and Creoles. In the typological study dealing with areal phonology, languages of Europe are investigated revealing that the role of language contact is crucial for the distribution of phonological phenomena. The novel nature and new strands of research in the contributions call for further investigations and form a new component in language-contact theory.

The contributions of this volume offer fresh insights into different aspects of grammatical structures. Language contact is the primary focus of several contributions, addressing various aspects of this topic, including lexical borrowings, creole languages, and other contact effects. Ranging from typological perspectives on grammatical structures to individual case studies, the volume sheds light on the complex processes underlying linguistic diversity worldwide.