A Linguistics and English Language Reading Group at School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
In this NILA meeting, we will be discussing "noun bias" in language acquisition —proposed as a universal feature of early language development—, in Tseltal (Mayan) (Casillas et al. 2024).
Casillas, M., Foushee, R., Méndez Girón, J., Polian, G., & Brown, P. (2024). Little evidence for a noun bias in Tseltal spontaneous speech. First Language, _44_(6), 600–628. https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237231216571
Date: Thursday 30th January, 2p.m.
Venue: Room S38 (7GS)
This week we will be discussing historical comparisons within the Mixtecan Language Family. Auderset et al. (2023) presents the “first Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the Mixtecan language family of southern Mexico”.
Auderset, S., Greenhill, S. J., DiCanio, C. T., & Campbell, E. W. (2023). Subgrouping in a ‘dialect continuum’: A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the Mixtecan language family. Journal of Language Evolution, 8(1), 33–63. https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad004
Date: Thursday 16th January, 2p.m.
Venue: Room S38 (7GS)
NILA will have a recess during the rest of December as the end of the semester approaches. We will continue reading and discussing native/indigenous languages of America next term from mid-January. Please remain attentive to our announcements by signing in to our mailing list:
nila@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk
NILA Organisers
In this session, we will be discussing Khipu Codes, with Medrano & Khosla (2024).
Medrano, M., & Khosla, A. (2024). How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code? Latin American Antiquity, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2024.5
Date: Thursday 5th December, 2p.m.
Venue: Room S38 (7GS)
Discussing:
Grammon, D., & Babel, A. (2024). Decentering the colonial native speaker. Language, 100(3), 504–551.
https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2024.a937187
Date: Thursday 21st November, 2p.m.
Venue: Room S38 (7GS)
Discussing:
Lovick, O., & Tuttle, S. G. (2024). Pitch Patterns in Standard Negation in Alaskan Dene and the Development of Grammatical Tone. _International Journal of American Linguistics_, _90_(4), 397–444. https://doi.org/10.1086/731661
PDF (after logging in with UoE creds): LINK TO PDF
Date: Thursday 7th November, 2p.m
Venue: Room S38 (7GS)
On our third meeting, we will be discussing Martin (2024), a historical reconciliation of case and switch-reference marking in Muskogean languages.
Case markers and switch-reference markers in the Muskogean languages are often similar in form and can be difficult to distinguish. This paper surveys both phenomena in each branch of the family. It argues that cleft clauses in Proto-Muskogean appeared after noun phrases to indicate focus. These cleft clauses ended in same- and different-subject switch-reference markers. With time, the cleft clauses were reinterpreted as subject and nonsubject case markers.
Martin, J. B. (2024). From Switch-Reference to Case Marking In Muskogean: The Role of Clefts. International Journal of American Linguistics, 90(4), 445–486. https://doi.org/10.1086/731659
Link to PDF (after logging in with UoE credentials)
Date/Time: 24 October, 2pm
Venue: Room S38, 7 George Square
Our second session will be on the 10th of October.
Venue: Room S38 at 7 George Square
Time: 2pm-3pm
We will be discussing Lapierre (2024), a book chapter that explores postnasal devoicing in Panãra (Jê), posited as an instance of a natural sound change, preconditioned by the particular phonological system of this Northern Jê language.
Lapierre, M. (2024). Postoralized and devoiced nasals in Panãra (Jê): ND > NT. In D. W. Enke, L. M. Hyman, J. Nichols, G. Seiler, T. Weber, A. Hölzl, M. Faytak, M. Lapierre, C. Elsweiler, J. Huber, V. Matoshi, T. Reiner, A. Deo, A. Hölzl, G. Jäger, R. Mühlenbernd, & G. Schaden, Language change for the worse (pp. 53–87) Language Science Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5116353
You can invite others to subscribe to our mailing list at nila@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk
Our first meeting will be on the 26th of September at 2-3pm, in room S38, 7GS. We will be discussing Nichols, 2024. A chronological account on Native North
American languages.
Nichols, J. (2024). Founder effects identify languages of the earliest Americans. American Journal of Biological Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24923 -
We are also expecting to have the chance to decide on future readings for the
reading group during this session.
We are planning to meet fortnightly starting from the week of the 23th of September 2024.
Please follow this link to a Google Form and fill in your preferred time slot for meeting and discuss about NILA.
Google form link: https://forms.gle/y6y4hbL4FqBxYrof7
