'Markedness' is a central notion in linguistic theory. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of markedness relations across various grammatical categories, in a sample of closely-related speech varieties. It is based on a sample of over 100 dialects of Romani, collected and processed via the Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS) Database - a comparative grammatical outline in electronic form, constructed by the authors between 2000-2004. Romani dialects provide an exciting sample of language change phenomena: they are oral languages, which have been separated and dispersed from some six centuries, and are strongly shaped by the influence of diverse contact languages. The book takes a typological approach to markedness, viewing it as a hierarchy among values that is conditioned by conceptual and cognitive universals. But it introduces a functional-pragmatic notion of markedness, as a grammaticalised strategy employed in order to priositise information. In what is referred to as 'dynamic', such prioritisation is influenced by an interplay of factors: the values within a category and the conceptual notions that they represent, the grammatical structure onto which the category values are mapped, and the kind of strategy that is applied in order to prioritise certain value. Consequently, the book contains a thorough survey of some 20 categories (e.g Person, Number, Gender, and so on) and their formal representation in various grammatical structures across the sample. The various accepted criteria for markedness (e.g. Complexity, Differentiation, Erosion, and so on) are examined systematically in relation to the values of each and every category, for each relevant structure. The outcome is a novel picture of how different markedness criteria may cluster for certain categories, giving a concrete reality to the hitherto rather vague notion of markedness. Borrowing and its relation to markedness is also examined, offering new insights into the motivations behind contact-induced change.
Elšik / Elsik / Matras
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Research Libraries, Researchers and Advanced Students of Linguist
Weitere Infos & Material
1;Frontmatter;1
2;Contents;9
3;Chapter 1 Introduction: Markedness and asymmetry in language;25
4;Chapter 2 The Markedness Hypothesis;31
5;Chapter 3 Toward a communication-based model of asymmetry in language;52
6;Chapter 4 The sample: Methodological considerations;72
7;Chapter 5 Early Romani;92
8;Chapter 6 Number;109
9;Chapter 7 Person;126
10;Chapter 8 Gender;162
11;Chapter 9 Degree;169
12;Chapter 10 Negation;180
13;Chapter 11 Cardinality;186
14;Chapter 12 Discreteness;197
15;Chapter 13 Tense, aspect, and mood;212
16;Chapter 14 Modality;227
17;Chapter 15 Transitivity;235
18;Chapter 16 Case and case roles;242
19;Chapter 17 Localisation;263
20;Chapter 18 Orientation;295
21;Chapter 19 Indefiniteness;305
22;Chapter 20 Ontological category;319
23;Chapter 21 Lexicality;336
24;Chapter 22 Associativity;346
25;Chapter 23 Chronological compartmentalisation;348
26;Chapter 24 Criteria for asymmetry and their distribution across categories;358
27;Chapter 25 Patterns of asymmetry;371
28;Chapter 26 Conceptual motivations for asymmetry;401
29;Chapter 27 Concluding remarks;430
30;Backmatter;434
Viktor Elsik ist Lehrbeauftragter an der Karls-Universität Prag, Tschechische Republik. Yaron Matras ist Professor für Linguistik an der Universität Manchester, Großbritannien.
Viktor Elsik ist Lehrbeauftragter an der Karls-Universität Prag, Tschechische Republik. Yaron Matras ist Professor für Linguistik an der Universität Manchester, Großbritannien.
