AREAL TYPOLOGY AND SYNTACTIC CHANGE
In the present study I make specifi c claims about the borrowing of structural categories and the impact of such borrowings on structural typology. I argue that certain linguistic strategies for clause combining are readily borrowed and that massive borrowing of these categories can result in structural change so extensive/signifi cant that the result is typological shift. Eurasia has long been identifi ed as a particular type of language typology. Early typological studies [1] identifi ed correlations between verb-fi nal word order, postpositions, relative clause before the noun, and, signifi cantly for the present study, subordinate clause before the main verb. Subsequent studies have shown that these correlations are statistically signifi cant only in Eurasia, suggesting that Eurasia is itself a zone for areal typology [2]. Siberia is an important part of that zone, and the indigenous languages of Siberia, are OV (namely the Mongolic, Tungusic and Turkic languages, Chukchi, Itelmen, Nivkh, and Yukaghir, as well as the Eskaleut languages). In the present paper I argue that the Siberian languages are undergoing typological shift as a result of contact with Russian, a change which began prior to language attrition which is now well underway for many if not all of the indigenous languages with small numbers of speakers.
Keywords: language contact, borrowing, grammatical categories, clause-linkage, Tungusic languages, Siberia
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Issue: 1, 2012
Pages: 101 — 105
Downloads: 909