Historical Linguistics 1991: Papers from the 10th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Amsterdam, August 12-16, 1991

414 Pages·1993·38.65 MB·English

by  Jaap van Marle (Ed.)

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS 1991
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Henning Andersen (Los Angeles); Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles)
Thomas V. Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi); John E. Joseph (Hong Kong)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Danny Steinberg (Tokyo)
Volume 107
Jaap van Marie (ed.)
Historical Linguistics 1991
HISTORICAL
LINGUISTICS 1991
PAPERS FROM THE
10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
AMSTERDAM, 12-16 AUGUST 1991
Edited by
JAAP VAN MARLE
Free University, Amsterdam
P.J. Meertens-Instituut, Amsterdam
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1993
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
International Conference on Historical Linguistics (10th : 1991 : Vrije Universiteit te
Amsterdam)
Historical linguistics 1991 : papers from the 10th International Conference on Histor­
ical Linguistics. Free University Amsterdam, August 12-16, 1991 / edited by Jaap van
Marie.
p. cm. - (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science.
Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763; v. 107)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Historical linguistics-Congresses. I. Marie, Jaap van. II. Title. III. Series.
P140.I5 1991
417'.7-dc20 93-26003
ISBN 90 272 3609 7 (Eur.)/l-55619-561-3 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1993 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O. Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • 821 Bethlehem Pike • Philadelphia, PA 19118 • USA
Table of contents
Preface vii
General programme of the conference ix
Brigitte L.M. Bauer
The tendency towards right branching in the development
and acquisition of Latin and French 1
Bernard H. Bichakjian
Linguistics and its positivist handicap 19
Adrienne Bruyn
Question words in 18th-century and 20th-century Sranan 31
Lyle Campbell
The explanation of syntactic change: a historical perspective 49
CJ. Conradie
Traffic between the pragmatic and structural levels 71
Dorothy Disterheft
Parameter resetting 87
Denis Dumas
Old French and constraints on consonant epenthesis 99
Richard Epstein
The definite article: early stages of development 111
Jadranka Gvozdanovic
Language change: complex in its sources and directions,
yet simple in systematicity 135
Jack Hoeksema
Suppression of a word-order pattern in Westgermanic 153
Masataka Ishikawa
Modularity in language change 175
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Alexis Manaster Ramer
Blood, tears, and murder: the evidence for Proto-Uto-Aztecan
syllable-final consonants 199
Donka Minkova
On leapfrogging in historical phonology 211
Paul Newman
Greenberg's American Indian classification: a report on the
controversy 229
Hella Olbertz
The grammaticalization of Spanish haber plus participle 243
Rebecca Posner
Latin to Romance (again!): change or genesis? 265
Edith H. Raidt
Linguistic variants and language change: deictic variants in
some German and Dutch dialects vis-à-vis Afrikaans 281
Elke Ronneberger-Sibold
'Typological conservatism ' and framing constructions in
German morphosyntax 295
Robert P. Stockwell
On the evidence for bimoric vowels in Early English 315
Benji Wald
Longterm evolution of the syntax of discourse and the Swahili
person markers 325
Paul Wexler
Jewish historical linguistics: 1981-1991-2001 343
Wim van der Wurff
Gerunds and their objects in the Modern English period 363
Indices (prepared by Boudewijn Smid)
Index of names 311
Index of languages 385
Index of subject matter 389
Preface
The Tenth International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL 10) was
held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from August 12 to August 16, 1991 under
the auspices of the Vrije Universiteit. The conference was attended by more than
130 participants, coming from over 30 countries.
At the time of the Conference, the Executive Committee of the International
Society for Historical Linguistics consisted of the following members:H enning
Andersen (UCLA), Dorothy Disterheft (South Carolina), Suzanne Fleischman
(Berkeley), Robert J. Jeffers (Rutgers), Paul Kiparsky (Stanford), and Dieter
Stein (Giessen). The members of the Executive Committee made recommenda­
tions on a wide range of issues which came up both before and during the
Conference. As the preparation of the Conference concurred with the Gulf Crisis
and Gulf War, there was even question of cancelling the meeting. Fortunately,
the decision was made to hold the Conference as scheduled.
As can be inferred from the Conference Programme which is included in the
volume, the general programme consisted of approximately 95 papers. In addi­
tion, some 30 papers were presented in the three workshops which were held
during the conference: workshop I on 'Null Subjects' organized by Ans van
Kemenade, workshop II on The Origin and Development of Verbal Periphrases'
organized by John Charles Smith, and workshop III on 'Medieval Dialectology'
organized by Jacek Fisiak.
The present volume contains a selection of the papers read during the regular
meeting of ICHL 10. The papers reproduced in the Proceedings clearly reflect the
on-going interest in the general mechanisms of language change, the close rela­
tionship between present-day historical linguistics and linguistic theory, and the
renewed interest in language contact. The selection was carried out by the mem­
bers of the Executive Committee and the President. In this connection, a special
word of thanks is due to Henning Andersen, Suzanne Fleischman and Dieter
Stein who gave invaluable advice. In addition, I am very much indebted to my
viii PREFACE
colleagues Eric Hoekstra and, particularly, Caroline Smits for further sugges­
tions, advice and help. The indices of this volume were prepared by Boudewijn
Smid, and the technical work of editing the Proceedings was carried out by Ineke
Meijer.
It would have been impossible to hold the Tenth International Conference on
Historical Linguistics in Amsterdam had it not been for the generous support of
several institutions. First of all, I would like to thank the Vrije Universiteit, which
hosted the Conference. Furthermore, I am also particularly indebted to the Board
of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for their substantial
subsidy. As a reflection of the important role the Royal Netherlands Academy
played in supporting the Conference, the opening ceremony was held by Prof.
P.W. Klein on behalf of the Board of the Academy. Moreover, the President of
the Academy, Prof. P.J.D. Drenth, addressed the Conference at a joint reception
of the Mayor and Aldermen of Amsterdam and the Royal Academy. The Faculty
of Arts and Letters of the Vrije Universiteit offered the closing reception, while
the opening reception of the Conference was organised by the Publisher of the
ICHL Proceedings, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam. The in­
terest of the Faculty of Arts and Lettres in the Conference is also clear from the
fact that the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. G.E. Booij, addressed the Conference
during the Opening Session as well. I am also grateful to the Mayor and Alder­
men of the City of Amsterdam for arranging a reception in one of the splendid
museums in Amsterdam, the Amsterdams Historisch Museum. Finally, a word of
thanks is due to the P.J. Meertens-Institute for Dialectology, Folklore/European
Ethnicity and Onomastics of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sci­
ences for arranging an informal get-together and for providing the Conference
with all kinds of secretarial and administrative support.
Special thanks are due to all of the colleagues who helped me organize the
Conference. I am much indebted to the staff of the Conference Service of the
Vrije Universiteit and the staff of the P.J. Meertens-Institute, particularly H.J.
Beekveldt, H. Phagoe and especially A.J. Wams-Verkerk for their invaluable
collaboration and help.
Jaap van Marie
President ICHL 10
Amsterdam, January 1993
General programme of the conference
Sunday, 11 August 1991
16.00- 19.00 Registration: P.J. Meertens-Institute
Keizersgracht 569-571, 1071 DR Amsterdam
Monday, 12 August 1991
09.00 - 10.00 Registration: Vrije Universiteit
De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam
10.00 - 10.30 Opening Session Prof. P.W. Klein (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts
and Sciences)
Prof. G.E. Booij (Faculty of Arts and Letters, Vrije
Universiteit)
SECTION 1 AUDITORIUM
10.30 - 11.00 Theodora Bynon Pragmatics and grammatical innovation
11.00- 11.30 Michael Israel Sense & Usage: A Study in diachronic Pragmatics
11.30- 12.00 C.J. Conradie Traffic between the Pragmatic and Structural Levels
12.00 - 12.30 —
12.30 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 15.00 Plenary Session: Multiple conditioning in syntactic change: the loss of
Erica C. Garcia: Old Spanish convusco
15.00 - 15.30 Tea break
15.30- 16.00 Lyle Campbell Explanation of Syntactic Change: a Historical Perspec­
tive
16.00 - 16.30 D. Disterheft Parameter Resetting and Abductive Change
16.30 - 17.00 Fred Weerman The interplay between L1 and L2 in Language Change
SECTION 2 2A - 05
10.30 - 11.00 David Denison The Information Present and Indirect Passive in Eng­
lish
11.00-11.30 W. van der Wurff Gerunds and their objects in the history of English
11.30 - 12.00 W.F. Koopman Double pronominal objects in the history of English,
with emphasis on Old English