Tsimshianic from a Central Northwest areal perspective: I *
This paper examines Tsimshianic in the context of common syntactic features of the Central Northwest linguistic area. Some surface syntactic parallels are discussed and family internal differences in determiner systems are hypothesized to be the result of North Wakashan linguistic influence, possibl...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.164.549 http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbeck/Tsim.pdf |
| Summary: | This paper examines Tsimshianic in the context of common syntactic features of the Central Northwest linguistic area. Some surface syntactic parallels are discussed and family internal differences in determiner systems are hypothesized to be the result of North Wakashan linguistic influence, possibly mediated by the spread of the secret society complexes in the historical period immediately prior to European contact. The Pacific Northwest is home to a well-known and remarkably extensive linguistic area or Sprachbund, extending from Northern California to the Panhandle of Alaska and eastwards into the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Idaho, and Montana. In spite of its size and the large number of languages present in the area (or perhaps because of them), relatively little work has been done to set out the features of the Sprachbund as a whole or to chart their distribution (a notable exception being Thompson & Kinkade 1990). Somewhat more progress has been made in mapping out potential sub-areas of the region, particularly Northern California (Haas 1978), the Plateau (Kinkade et al. 1990), the Northern Northwest Coast (Leer 1991), and the Central Northwest (Beck 2000). Tsimshianic languages are in an interesting position geographically in this context in that they lie on the border of two of these sub-areas, the Northern Northwest Coast (comprised by Haida, Tlingit, Eyak, and Aleut) and the Central This article, less a paper than a trial balloon, owes a great deal to the help of Sasha Aikhenvald |
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