Robert M. W. Dixon
Författare till The Rise and Fall of Languages
Om författaren
Särskiljningsinformation:
(eng) The blues, language, autobiography are by the same author. He also wrote some mysteries and sf.
Serier
Verk av Robert M. W. Dixon
Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance: Problems in Comparative Linguistics (2001) — Redaktör — 16 exemplar
Words of our country : stories, place names, and vocabulary in Yidiny, the Aboriginal language of the Cairns-Yarrabah… (1991) 11 exemplar
The Handbook of Australian Languages: Volume 4: The Aboriginal Language of Melbourne and Other Grammatical Sketches (Th (1991) 10 exemplar
Dyirbal Song Poetry: The Oral Literature of an Australian Rainforest People (UQP paperbacks) (1996) 8 exemplar
Wargamay, the Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri, Watjarri, Margany and Gunya, Tasmanian (1979) 8 exemplar
Where Have All the Adjectives Gone?: And Other Essays in Semantics and Syntax (Janua Linguarum. Series Maior, 107) (1982) 7 exemplar
Edible gender, mother-in-law style, and other grammatical wonders : studies in Dyirbal, Yidin, and Warrgamay (2015) 4 exemplar
Handbook of Australian Languages, Vol. 5: Grammatical Sketches of Bunuba, Ndjébbana and Kugu Nganhcara (2000) 2 exemplar
Jirrbal Girramay Language Conference 1 exemplar
Jezici bolji od drugih 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
Language form and linguistic variation : papers dedicated to Angus McIntosh (1982) — Bidragsgivare — 4 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Namn enligt folkbokföringen
- Dixon, Robert Malcolm Ward
- Andra namn
- Brown, Hosanna (pseudonym)
Tully, Simon (pseudonym) - Födelsedag
- 1939-01-25
- Kön
- male
- Nationalitet
- UK
- Födelseort
- Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK
- Utbildning
- University of Oxford
University of Edinburgh - Priser och utmärkelser
- Leonard Bloomfield Award (Linguistics, 2006)
- Särskiljningsnotis
- The blues, language, autobiography are by the same author. He also wrote some mysteries and sf.
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Priser
Du skulle kanske också gilla
Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 59
- Även av
- 2
- Medlemmar
- 678
- Popularitet
- #37,272
- Betyg
- 4.0
- Recensioner
- 4
- ISBN
- 163
- Språk
- 2
A brief book about language change, which dates back to 1997 but I don't know how fast the field moves. The author has two main points to make. First off, he compares the evolution of language to Steven Jay Gould's concept of punctuated equilibrium in biology: long periods of steady development with little change, interspersed with periods when the environment changes rapidly and organisms, or languages, must adapt equally rapidly to survive. The impact of Western colonialism is the most recent and largest such traumatic change to have hit the world's language groups and ddiversity.
His other main point is to propose an alternative to the "family tree" model of language relationships. It works well for Indeo-European (within limits) and also for the Austronesian languages of the Pacific; but he is sceptical, to put it politely, of Greenblatt's claims to have constructed family trees for the African and Amerindian languages, let alone the pretensions of Nostratic. Surely in most cases where different language groups exist side by side for centuries, it makes at least as much sense to consider a "linguistic area" where neighbouring speakers may steal vocabulary and grammar from each other. His example is Australia, the area he knows best, but I can see relevance for the Albanian / Macedonian / Bulgarian / Romanian relationship which I've always found fascinating. He makes the point that even Proto-Indo-European doesn't appear to have been homogenous - did the instrumental plural end with *-bhis or *-mis ?
Anyway, I found this rather more digestible than dear old C.-J. Bailey's essay collection. Must look out for more on this topic...… (mer)