Glottopedia - User contributions [en]

User:Witzlack

2008-02-11T12:25:46Z

Witzlack:

Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, PhD student (University of Leipzig)

===Link===
[http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~witzlack/ Homepage]

User:Witzlack

2008-02-11T12:25:16Z

Witzlack:

Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, PhD student (University of Leipzig)

===Link===
[http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~witzlack/ Homepage]
[[Category:LINGUIST|Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena]]

User:Witzlack

2008-02-11T12:21:52Z

Witzlack:

Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, PhD student (University of Leipzig)

===Link===
[http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~witzlack/ Homepage]

User:Witzlack

2008-02-11T12:20:38Z

Witzlack:

Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, PhD student (University of Leipzig)

===Link===
[http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~witzlack/ Homepage]
[[Category:LINGUIST|Witzlack]]

User:Witzlack

2008-02-11T12:16:54Z

Witzlack: New page: Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, PhD student (University of Leipzig) ===Link=== [http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~witzlack/ Homepage] Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena

Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, PhD student (University of Leipzig)

===Link===
[http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~witzlack/ Homepage]
[[Category:LINGUIST|Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena]]

Osthoff's law

2008-02-10T21:23:54Z

Witzlack: New page: '''Osthoff's law''' is a tendency of Proto-Indo-European long vowels to shorten when they were followed by a sonorant and another consonant. The law was proclaimed in 1881 and again i...

'''Osthoff's law''' is a tendency of Proto-Indo-European long vowels to shorten when they were followed by a sonorant and another consonant.
 The law was proclaimed in 1881 and again in 1884 by the German linguist [[Hermann Osthoff]] (1847-1909). It is apparent mostly in Greek, but there were attempts to widen the domain of its application to Latin, Gothic, Baltic and even Germanic, though the evidence is weak (Collinge 1985: 127, Ringe 2006: 1975-77).
 The law was formulated as follows:
:::*''Jeder lange vocal ist in der stellung vor sonorlaut [...] und einem weiteren consonant innerhalb desselben wortes urgriechisch verkürzt worden.'' (Osthoff 1884: 84-85 as cited in Collinge 1985: 127)

==References==
* Collinge, Neville Edgar. 1985. ''The laws of Indo-European''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
* Kiparsky, Paul. 1967. A phonological rule of Greek. ''Glotta'' 44.109-34.
* Osthoff, Hermann. 1881. Review of G. Mayer, ''Griechische Grammatik. Philologische Rundschau'' 1, cols.1593ff.
* Osthoff, Hermann. 1884. ''Zur Geschichte des Perfects im Indogermanischen: mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Griechisch und Lateinisch''. Strassburg: Trübner.
* Osthoff, Hermann. 1888. ''Etymologica I. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur'' 13.395-463. Halle: Niemeyer.
* Ringe, Donald A. 2006. ''A History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dislocation

2008-02-10T21:23:20Z

Witzlack: New page: In Syntax, '''dislocation''' can be defined in the following way: :::*''A dislocation construction (also called detachment construction) is a sentence structure in which a referential con...

In Syntax, '''dislocation''' can be defined in the following way:
:::*''A dislocation construction (also called detachment construction) is a sentence structure in which a referential constituent which could function as an argument or an adjunct within a predicate-argument structure occurs instead outside the boundaries of the clause containing the predicate, either to its left (left-dislocation, henceforth LD) or to its right (right-dislocation, henceforth RD).'' (Lambrecht 1994:1050)

For example, in English sentence ''My aunt, she died when I was six'' the noun phrase ''my aunt'' could be the subject of the clause (''My aunt died when I was six'') but is left-dislocated instead and its position within the clause is occupied by a coreferential pronoun ''she''. ''He's a lier, that John'' is a sentence with a right-dislocated element (''that John'').

Instead of dislocation, various other terms have been proposed in the literature. The left dislocated constituent has been called ''theme'' (Dik 1997) or ''topic'' (Lambrecht 1994), whereas the right-dislocated constituent has been named ''tail'' (Dik 1997) or ''antitopic'' (Lambrecht 1994).

Lambrecht (2001: 1050) suggests four criteria for determining a dislocation construction. They include:<ol>
<li>extra-clausal position of a constituent,</li>
<li>possible alternative intra-clausal position,</li>
<li>pronominal coindexation,</li>
<li>special prosody.</li></ol>
Of the four criteria only the first one is obligatory for a sentence construction to qualify as an instance of dislocation.

There is a general concern in the literature that right-dislocation and left-dislocation are topic-marking constructions, however, the exact discourse functions of the two constructions and the difference between them is a matter of ongoing debate (see among others Lambrecht 1994, ward and Birner 1996, Manetta 2007).

==References==
*Dik, Simon C. 1997. ''The theory of functional grammar. Part 1. The structure of the clause.'' Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

*Lambrecht, Knud. 1994.'' Information structure and sentence form.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Lambrecht, Knud. 2001. Dislocation. In Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible, eds., L''anguage Typology and Language Universals: An International Handbook.'' (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, 20). Vol. 2, 1050-1078. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

*Manetta, Emily. 2007. Unexpected left dislocation: An English Corpus Study. ''Journal of Pragmatics 39'', 1029-1035.

*Prince, Ellen, 1997. On the functions of left-dislocation in English discourse. In: Kamio, A. (Ed.), ''Directions in Functional Linguistics''. John Benjamins, Philadelphia, pp. 117–144.

*Prince, Ellen, 1998. On the limits of syntax, with reference to topicalization and left-dislocation. In: Cullicover, P., McNally, L. (Eds.), ''Syntax and Semantics'', vol. 29. Academic Press, New York, pp. 281–302.

*Ward, Gregory and Birner, Betty J (1996): On the Discourse Function of Rightward Movement in English. In: Goldberg, Adele (ed.): ''Conceptual Structure, Discourse and Language''. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications. 463-479.

Verner's law

2008-02-10T21:22:50Z

Witzlack: New page: '''Verner’s Law''' is a voicing process which affected the Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives in the intervocal position, so that ''ɸ'', ''θ'', ''x'', ''xʷ'', ''s'' became ''β'', ''...

'''Verner’s Law''' is a voicing process which affected the Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives in the intervocal position, so that ''ɸ'', ''θ'', ''x'', ''xʷ'', ''s'' became ''β'', ''ð'', ''ɣ'', ''ɣʷ'', ''z'' respectively unless there was a stress in Proto-Indo-European on the immediately preceding syllable (in the majority of sources notated as ''f'', ''þ'', ''χ'', ''χʷ'', ''s'' becoming ''ƀ'', ''đ'', ''ǥ'', ''ǥʷ'', ''z''). 
After the application of [[Grimm's law]], Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops should have become voiceless fricatives in Proto-Germanic. However, often they were also voiced. These irregularities to Grimm's law were noticed before Verner: the voicing alternation in certain verb paradigms had been already described by Braune (1874) and was referred to as ''grammatischer Wechsel'' after Holtzmann (1870), however, Karl Adolf Verner (1846-1896) was the first to find an explanation for these irregularities. According to his biographical notes (Verner 1903), he formulated the rule already in 1875 and published it in 1876 under a misleading title ''Eine Ausnahme der ersten Lautverschiebung''. 
Verner's rule can be exemplified with the development of the word ''*ph2tḗr'' 'father'. Proto-Indo-European *''t'' developed into ''ð'' instead of the expected *''θ'': Proto-Germanic *''faðēr'' instead of expected *''faθēr''. 

==References==
* Beekes, Robert S. P. 1995. ''Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction.'' Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
* Braune, Wilhelm. 1874. Über den grammatischen Wechsel in der deutschen Verbalflexion. ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur'' 1.513-27.
* Collinge, Neville Edgar. 1985. ''The laws of Indo-European''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
* Holtzmann, Adolf. 1870. ''Altdeutsche Grammatik I''. Leipzig: Brockhaus.
* Lehmann, Winfred P. 1967. ''A reader in nineteenth century historical Indo-European linguistics''. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
* Ringe, Donald A. 2006. ''A History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Rooth, Erik 1974. ''Das Vernersche Gesetz in Forschung und Lehre.'' Lund: Gleerup.
* Verner, Karl Adolf. 1876a. Eine Ausnahme der ersten Lautverschiebung. ''Kuhns Zeitschrift'' (Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung) 23.97-130.
* Verner, Karl Adolf. 1876b. Zur Ablautsfrage. ''Kuhns Zeitschrift'' (Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung) 21.131-38.
* Verner, Karl Adolf. 1903. ''Afhandlinger og breve udgivne af Selskab for germansk filologi.'' Copenhagen: Selskab for germansk filologi.

User:Haspelmath/Temporary

2008-02-10T21:22:27Z

Witzlack:

[[Langue]]

[[Parole]]

[[Kompetenz]]

[[Performanz]]

[[semantische Ausbleichung]]

[[Spaltsatz]]

[[psychologisches Subjekt]]

[[psychologisches Prädikat]]

[[Adverbiale Bestimmung]]

[[Existenzialsatz]]

[[Hauptsatz]]

[[Nebensatz]]

[[relationales Substantiv]]

[[starkes und schwaches Präteritum]]

[[Periode]]

[[Great Vowel Shift]]

[[chain shift]]

[[assimilation]]

[[dissimilation]]

[[back formation]]

[[Osthoff's law]]

[[dislocation]]

[[Verner's law]]

[[cardinal numeral]]
[[case]]
[[cataphora]]
[[causal relation]]
[[causative]]
[[causative case]]
[[causer as a semantic role]]
[[center-periphery schema]]
[[centrifugal]]
[[centripetal]]
cessative aspect
chain of illocutionary commitments
circular definition
circumfix
circumfixation
classifier
clausal implicature
clause
clause chain
cleft sentence
clitic (Grammar)
close future tense
closed class
coding time
collateral information
collective noun
collocate
comitative case
command
comment
commissive illocutionary point
commissive modality
commitment between illocutionary acts
common noun
complement
complement clause
complementary distribution
complementizer
complex illocutionary act
complex sentence
compound
compound discourse
compound predicate
compound sentence
compulsion schema
conceptual extendedness
concession relation
concrete noun
conditional relation
conjunction
conjunctive adverb
conjunctive illocutionary act
conjunctive verb
connective
consonant
consonant modification
constituent
construction
container metaphor
containment schema
the context of an expression
continuant
continuer
continuous aspect
contoid
contraction relation
contrast in analogous environments
contrast in identical environments
contrast relation
contrastive analysis
conventional implicature
conventional metaphor
conventional metonymy
conversation analysis
conversational implicature
conversational maxim
the cooperative principle
coordinate clause
coordinating conjunction
copula
core argument
coreference
correction relation
correlative conjunction
count noun
counteragent as a semantic role
counterfactual conditional relation
counterforce schema
cycle schema

# [[A-bar free]]
# A-bar position: see [[A-position]]
# [[Abduction]]
# [[A-binding]]
# [[Ablaut]]
# A-bound: see [[A-binding]]
# [[Absolute neutralization]]
# [[Absolute threshold]]
# Absolutive: see [[Ergative pattern]]
# [[Absorption]]
# [[Abstract noun]]
# [[ABX discrimination]]
# [[Accent]]
# [[Accessibility]]
# Accessible: see [[Accessibility]]
# [[Accidental gap]]
# Accomplishment: see [[Aspectual classes]]
# [[Accusative verb]]
# A-chain: see [[Chain]]
# Achievement: see [[Aspectual classes]]
# [[Acoustic correlate]]
# [[Acoustic coupling]]
# [[Acronym]]
# [[Across-the-Board]]
# Action tier: see [[Thematic theory]]
# [[Active]]
# Activity: see [[Aspectual classes]]
# Adam's apple: see [[thyroid]]
# [[Adaptation]]
# [[Adduction]]
# Adicity: see [[Arity]]
# [[Adjacency]]
# [[Adjacency Condition]]
# Adjoin: see [[Adjunction]]
# [[Adjunct]]
# [[Adjunct Condition]]
# [[Adjunction]]
# [[Adjunction condition]]
# [[Advanced tongue root]]
# [[Adverb]]
# [[Affect alpha]]
# [[Affected object]]
# Affectedness: see [[Affected object]]
# [[Affix]]
# [[Affix Ordering Generalization]]
# Affix Rule: see [[Lexical transformation]]
# [[Affix substitution]]
# [[Affixation]]
# [[Affricate]]
# [[A-free]]
# [[Agent]]
# [[Agentive verb]]
# [[A-GF]]
# [[Agglutinating language]]
# [[AGR]]
# [[Agree]]
# [[Agreement]]
# [[Airstream mechanisms]]
# Aktionsart: see [[Aspectual classes]]
# [[Aliasing]]
# Alienable possession: see [[Inalienable possession]]
# Allomorph: see [[Allomorphy]]
# [[Allomorphy]]
# [[Allomorphy rule]]
# [[Allophony]]
# [[Alveolar]]
# [[Ambiguity]]
# [[Ambisyllabic]]
# [[A-movement]]
# [[Amplitude]]
# [[Analog-to-digital conversion]]
# [[Analogy]]
# [[Analysis-and-resynthesis]]
# [[Analysis-by-synthesis]]
# [[Analytic truth]]
# [[Anaphor]]
# [[Anaphoric epithet]]
# [[Anaphoric pronoun]]
# [[Angled brackets]]
# [[Anomaly]]
# [[Antecedent]]
# [[Antecedent government]]
# Antecedent-govern: see [[Antecedent-government]]
# [[Anterior]]
# [[Anticipatory shortening]]
# [[Antiformant]]
# Antipersistence: see [[Downward monotonicity]]
# [[Antonymy]]
# [[A-over-A]]
# [[Apical]]
# [[A-position]]
# [[Appositional compound]]
# [[Approximant]]
# [[Arbitrary PRO]]
# [[Argument]]
# Argument position: see [[A-position]]
# [[Argument structure]]
# [[Argument-linking Principle]]
# [[Arity]]
# Article: see [[Determiner]]
# [[Articulation]]
# Articulation rate: see [[Speech rate]]
# [[Articulators]]
# [[Articulatory gesture]]
# [[Articulatory speech synthesis]]
# [[Articulography]]
# [[Arytenoid]]
# [[Aspect]]
# [[Aspectual classes]]
# [[Aspiration]]
# Assertion: see [[Declarative sentence]]
# [[Assignment]]
# [[Assimilation]]
# Atelic aspect: see [[Aspectual classes]]
# [[Atom Condition]]
# [[Atomic formula]]
# Atomicity of words: see [[Lexicalist hypothesis]]
# [[Attract]]
# [[Attractor]]
# attributive noun phrase: see [[attributive use]]
# [[Attributive use]]
# [[Audiogram]]
# Auditory feedback: see [[Feedback]]
# [[Automatic speaker identification]]
# [[Automatic speaker verification]]
# [[Automatic Speech Recognition]]
# [[Autosegmental analysis of intonation]]
# [[AUX]]
# [[Auxiliary verb]]
# [[Avoid Pronoun Principle]]
# [[AX discrimination]]

Assimilation

2008-02-10T21:21:13Z

Witzlack: New page: '''Assimilation''' is a sound change process, when one sound causes another sound to become phonetically more similar to it in some way. Assimilatory changes can be classified according t...

'''Assimilation''' is a sound change process, when one sound causes another sound to become phonetically more similar to it in some way.

Assimilatory changes can be classified according to the following dichotomies: partial versus total, progressive versus regressive, contact versus distant.

An assimilation is '''total''' assimilation if the assimilated sound adopts all the phonetic features of another sound and becomes identical to it: Latin ''se'''p'''tem'' 'seven' > Italian ''se'''t'''te''. An assimilation is '''partial''' if the assimilated sound retains at least one of its original phonetic features and adopts only some of the phonetic features of another sound. Thus, Old English ''e'''f'''n'' 'even' > West-Saxon ''e'''m'''n''.

'''Regressive''' (also called anticipatory or right-to-left) assimilation is one in which the sound that undergoes the change (the target) comes earlier in the word than the trigger of assimilation, in other words the change operates backwards: Latin ''se'''p'''tem'' 'seven' > Italian ''se'''t'''te''. In case of '''progressive''' (also known as perseveratory or preservative or lag or left-to-right assimilation) assimilation the trigger comes before the target so that the assimilation operates forwards: Proto-Germantic ''*wul'''n'''o'' 'wool' > Old English ''wul'''l'''''. In rare cases of ''reciprocal assimilation'' there is a mutual influence between the two sounds.

In case of '''contact''' assimilation (also called immediate assimilation) the sound undergoing assimilation and the one causing it are immediately adjacent: Old English ''e'''f'''n'' 'even' > West-Saxon ''e'''m'''n''. In case of '''distant''' assimilation the two sounds are not adjacent: Proto-Indo-European ''*'''p'''enkʷe'' > Latin '''''kʷ'''inkʷe'' (spelled quinque). When distant assimilation applies over an entire word it is called [[harmony]] (e.g. [[vowel harmony]], [[nasal harmony]]).

==References==
* Campbell, Lyle & Mauricio J. Mixco. 2007. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
* Crowley, Terry. 1997. ''An introduction to historical linguistics'' 3rd ed. Auckland: Oxford University Press.
* Kiparsky, Paul. 2003. The phonological basis of sound change. In ''Handbook of historical linguistics'', ed. by Brian D. Joseph and Richard D. Janda, 313–342. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
* McMahon, April M.S. 1994. Understanding language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dissimilation

2008-02-10T21:20:42Z

Witzlack: New page: '''Dissimilation''' (also called dissimilatory change) is a sound change in which one sound becomes less similar than another, usually adjacent, sound: Latin ''pe'''r'''egrinus'' > French ...

'''Dissimilation''' (also called dissimilatory change) is a sound change in which one sound becomes less similar than another, usually adjacent, sound: Latin ''pe'''r'''egrinus'' > French ''pe'''l'''erin'' 'pilgrim', Eng. pilgrim. Dissimilation is the opposite of [[assimilation]].

Dissimilation can be classified according to the same dichotomies as assimilation: partial versus total, progressive versus regressive, contact versus distant.

A famous example of dissimilation is the dissimilation of aspirates in Greek and Sanskrit known as [[Grassmann's Law]].

==References==
* Campbell, Lyle & Mauricio J. Mixco. 2007. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
* Crowley, Terry. 1997. ''An introduction to historical linguistics'' 3rd ed. Auckland: Oxford University Press.
* McMahon, April M.S. 1994. Understanding language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Back formation

2008-02-10T21:20:10Z

Witzlack: New page: '''Back formation''' (also known as retrograde formation) is a type of word formation in which a word is assumed to have a morphological structure (for instance, a root and an affix) that ...

'''Back formation''' (also known as retrograde formation) is a type of word formation in which a word is assumed to have a morphological structure (for instance, a root and an affix) that it did not originally have and is then decomposed. Often monomorphemic words are decomposed into a root and a affix if the language has a productive affix with the same phonological form as a part of the word that underwent back formation. The process can be schematically represented as follows:

* Initial morphological structure: ('''''abcdef''''')stem; the language also has a productive affix with the form (''ef'').

* Morphological structure after back formation: ('''''abcd''''')stem('''''ef''''')suffix.

For example, ''edit'' is a result of backformation from ''editor'', ''sculpt'' from ''sculptor'' (decomposed as having the productive suffixes ''–or'' or ''–er'' used to build words denoting a person who performs the action denoted by a verb).

==References==
* Campbell, Lyle & Mauricio J. Mixco. 2007. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Great Vowel Shift

2008-02-10T21:19:33Z

Witzlack: New page: The '''Great Vowel Shift''' (aka Tudor Vowel Shift) is a series of sound changes which affected the Middle English long vowels. The Middle English high vowels became diphthongs with low fi...

The '''Great Vowel Shift''' (aka Tudor Vowel Shift) is a series of sound changes which affected the Middle English long vowels. The Middle English high vowels became diphthongs with low first element and all other long vowels were raised (see Fig. 1). For instance, in the word ''bite'' the initial /i:/ started to be pronounced as /əi/. The fact that nowadays the prononciation is /aʊ/ is a result of a separate development which followed the Great Vowel Shift.
[[Image:GVS.jpg|thumb|none|350px|Fig. 1 Great Vowel Shift]]
The first innovating spellings reflecting the begginning of the Great Vowel Shift can be found in the East Midlands in the early fourtenth century (Lass 1999). The two top hights (/i:/, /u:/, /e:/, and /o:/) finished the raising by around 1500; the rest of the long vowels shifted later. By 1650 the Great Vowel Shift was completed.

==How did the Great Vowel Shift start?==

There are two major positions on the trigger of the Great Vowel Shift. For Otto Jespersen, the Great Vowel Shift was a drag chain. It started with the diphthongization of /i:/ and /u:/ to /əɪ/ and /əʊ/ respectively (Fig. 2a). At the next stage, /e:/ and /o:/ were dragged upwards to fill the empty slots left behind by the diphthongization (Fig. 2b). Finally, the remaining three long vowels /ɛ:/, /ɔ:/ and /a:/ were raised. 
[[Image:GVS_stage1.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Fig. 2a Drag chain: stage 1]]
[[Image:GVS_stage2.jpg|thumb|none|350px|Fig. 2b Drag chain: stage 2]]

 For Karl Luick, the Great Vowel Shift was a push chain. The trigger of the change was the raising of the mid vowels /e:/ and /o:/. On their way upwards they pushed /i:/ and /u:/ out of their slots (Fig. 3a). This changed was followed by a drag of lower vowels upwards (Fig. 3b). There is no strong textual or orthoepic evidence to reject one of the positions.
[[Image:GVS_push_stage1.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Fig. 3a Push chain: stage 1]]
[[Image:GVS_push_stage2.jpg|thumb|none|350px|Fig. 3b Push chain: stage 2]]
 
==References==
* Baugh, Albert C., and Thomas Cable. 1978. ''A History of the English Language''. 3rd ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
* Diensberg, Bernhard. Linguistic Change in English: The Case of the Great Vowel Shift from the Perspective of Phonological Alternations Due to the Wholesale Borrowing of Anglo-French Loanwords. ''Folia-Linguistica-Historica''; 1998, 19, 1-2, 103-117
* Jespersen, Otto. 1909-1949. ''A modern English grammar on historical principles.'' London: George Allen and Unwin.
* Lass, Roger. 1999. Phonology and morphology. In Roger Lass (ed.) ''The Cambridge History of the English Language'', Vol 2: 1476-1776. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 56-186.
*Luick, Karl.1921-1940.'' Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache.'' Leipzig: Tauchnitz.
* McMahon, April. 2006. Restructuring Renaissance English. In Lynda Mugglestone (ed.) ''The Oxford History of English''. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 147-177.
* Ringe, Donald A. 2006. ''A History of English: Volume I: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Schendl, Herbert and Nikolaus Ritt. 2002. Of Vowel Shifts Great, Small, Long and Short. ''Language-Sciences'' 24, 3-4, May-July, 409-421.
* Smith, Jeremy. 1996. ''A Historical Study of English.'' London and New York: Routledge.

File:GVS.jpg

2008-02-10T21:18:41Z

Witzlack: Great Vowel Shift

Great Vowel Shift

File:GVS push stage2.jpg

2008-02-10T21:17:24Z

Witzlack: Great Vowel Shift as a push chain, stage 2

Great Vowel Shift as a push chain, stage 2

File:GVS push stage1.jpg

2008-02-10T21:17:06Z

Witzlack: Great Vowel Shift as a push chain, stage 1

Great Vowel Shift as a push chain, stage 1

File:GVS stage2.jpg

2008-02-10T21:16:30Z

Witzlack: Great Vowel Shift as a drag chain (stage 2)

Great Vowel Shift as a drag chain (stage 2)

File:GVS stage1.jpg

2008-02-10T21:15:58Z

Witzlack: Great Vowel Shift as a drag chain (stage 1)

Great Vowel Shift as a drag chain (stage 1)

Chain shift

2008-02-10T21:15:04Z

Witzlack: New page: '''Chain shift''' is a series of interrelated sound changes. The assumption behind the chain shift is that all the phonemes of a language build a balanced system so that a change in one pa...

'''Chain shift''' is a series of interrelated sound changes. The assumption behind the chain shift is that all the phonemes of a language build a balanced system so that a change in one part of the system can cause changes in its other parts. In this view, sound systems are considered to be symmetrical (to have no gaps in the phonemic inventory). Once this symmetry is violated due to some system-external causes there appears a gap. Due to the system-internal pressure to restore the balance this gap will be filled by some other phoneme which in its turn will create another gap which has to be filled causing thus a chain reaction. A famous example of chain shift is Grimm’s Law.

Two types of chain shifts can be differentiated: [[drag chains]] (also called pull chains) and [[push chains]].

In a drag chain, one change creates a gap in the phonemic inventory. This change motivates another change to fill the gap by pulling in some other sound of the phonemic system. If after this second change a new gap emerges the process of pulling continues resulting in a chain of interrelated changes.

One of the interpretations of the Great Vowel Shift demonstrares a drag chain. Acoording to some linguists, it started with the diphthongization of /i:/ and /u:/ to /əɪ/ and /əʊ/ respectively (Fig. 11). At the next stage, /e:/ and /o:/ were dragged upwards to fill the empty slots left behind by the diphthongization (Fig. 1b). Finally, the remaining three long vowels /ɛ:/, /ɔ:/ and /a:/ were raised. 
[[Image:GVS_stage1.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Fig. 1a Drag chain: stage 1]]
[[Image:GVS_stage2.jpg|thumb|none|350px|Fig. 1b Drag chain: stage 2]]

In a push chain, a sound moves into the articulatory slot of another sound which might lead to a loss of distinction between the two sounds. However, there is a system-internal pressure to preserve the differences between the sounds to allow for word differentiation. Due to this pressure the shifting sound pushes another sound out of its slot thus preventing a collision of two sounds. The displaced sound then moves towards a different slot. If this articulatory space is also occupied, another sound has to move which results in a chain of pushing.

Push chain can be demonstrared with Karl Luick's analysis of the Great Vowel Shift. The trigger of the change was the raising of the mid vowels /e:/ and /o:/. On their way upwards they pushed /i:/ and /u:/ out of their slots (Fig. 2a). This changed was followed by a drag of lower vowels upwards (Fig. 2b).
[[Image:GVS_push_stage1.jpg|thumb|left|350px|Fig. 2a Push chain: stage 1]]
[[Image:GVS_push_stage2.jpg|thumb|none|350px|Fig. 2b Push chain: stage 2]]

==References==
* Campbell, Lyle & Mauricio J. Mixco. 2007. A Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.