76 research outputs found
Camiel Hamans i Hans Henrich Hock (ur.): Language, History, Ideology: The Use and Misuse of Historical-Comparative Linguistics
No full textPrikaz knjige Camiel Hamans i Hans Henrich Hock (ur.): Language, History, Ideology: The Use and Misuse of Historical-Comparative Linguistics", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024., 384 str
The parallel between diminutives, hypocoristics and embellished clippings in English and Dutch (Camiel Hamans)
No full textThe parallel between diminutives, hypocoristics and embellished clippings in English and Dutch (Camiel Hamans)
No full textLanguage change and morphological processes
Get PDFMorphological change is not a result of mechanical, predictable processes, but of the behavior of language users. Speakers reinterpret opaque data in order to assign a more transparent structure to them. Subsequently successful reinterpretation may form the basis of new derivations. The moment such a derivative word formation process becomes productive a language change has taken place. In addition, this paper shows how language change obscures the distinction between separate morphological processes such as compounding and derivation and thus between morphological categories. Moreover, the data under discussion show that there is not a preferred natural direction of language change. Most of the examples are taken from English and Dutch, but also a few French, Frisian, German and Afrikaans data are discussed
The Charter: A Plea for Tolerance
Get PDFThis paper describes the background of the Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (1992). To explain why linguistic diversity became an issue in the last decades of the 20th century, the paper goes back to the end of the 18th and the 19th century, a period in which nation building and homogenization were the main political issues in Western Europe. Since language was seen as nation binder language diversity was anathema. This led to language conflicts, which were sought to be solved by means of the Charter that promoted the acceptance of language diversity
Minority Languages Under Nazi Occupation
Get PDFThis paper discusses the special interest the Third Reich ideologues had for Germanic minority languages. In particular, the situation in Friesland, Flanders and Brittany is addressed. Moreover, it is made clear how German linguists from that period tried to annex Wallonia as an original Germanic area. Finally, the consequences of this cooperation with the Nazi occupier for the post-war discussions about these minority languages are briefly indicated
THE NATURAL HEBREW ALPHABET ACCORDING TO FRANCIS MERCURY VAN HELMONT
Get PDFInternational audienceThis paper discusses the work of Francis Mercury van Helmont (1667) on the natural character of the Hebrew alphabet, by which he aimed at teaching the deaf to speak. His essay is placed against the hermetic philosophical background of his days, as well against the linguistic ideas prevailing in the Low Countries of his days. Special attention is given to the valuable phonetic observations of Van Helmont.Dans cet article nous examinons l’ouvrage de François Mercure van Helmont (1667) consacré au caractère naturel de l'alphabet hébreu devant permettre aux sourds d’apprendre à parler. Son essai s’oppose à la philosophie hermétique et aux idées linguistiques en vigueur à l’époque aux Pays-Bas. On prêtera une attention particulière aux observations phonétiques tout à fait intéressantes effectuées par Van Helmont
How an ‘Italian’ Suffix Became Productive in Germanic Languages
No full textIn modern West-Germanic and Scandinavian languages one comes across words such as German Nudo(‘nudist’), Swedish fyllo (‘alcoholic’) and Dutch lullo (‘asshole’). All these words are recently coined under the influence of American English words such as psycho, from psychopath, lesbo, from lesbian, and kiddo from kid. This chapter describes how this new pattern of shortened and monosyllabic -o words has spread across the word and how it was able to compete with other shortened, ‘clipped’ words such as English sex from sexualactivity, plane from aeroplane, flu from influenza and clipped and monosyllabic forms with a suffix -y/-ie, so called hypocoristics, such as telly from televisionset, Andy from Andrew and hottie from hot. It also explains how this new Italian-style American English suffix managed to put aside its own Swedish, German and Dutch patterns and how this new -opattern was borrowed and became productive via a process of reinterpretation in these languages
The Return of the Prodigal Son
Get PDFIn this paper the question is anwered why the Parable of the Prodgial Son became the most frequently used text for dialect documentation and comparison. It turns out that a French Celtomaniac was the first to use this text for the documentation of a language. Later the French emperor Bonaparte commissioned an inventory of languages and dialects in his empire. Herefor the Parable was used again
The Minority Language Debate: The Case of Yiddish in the Dutch Language Landscape
Get PDFAlthough the description and study of dialects used to be a central issue in
traditional linguistics from the last quarter of the 19th century onwards, the protection and promotion of minority and regional languages only became a topic for linguistic research and language policy almost one hundred years later.
With the rise of sociolinguistics in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century and the growing interest in the language use of different social classes, linguists, educators and politicians became interested in non-standard languages.
At the political level this led to several international reports, declarations, manifestos and charters, the most important being the Charter of Regional and Minority Languages accepted by the Council of Europe in 1992. In this article the implementation of the Charter in a few European Countries, such as France, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands, is discussed. From this survey it becomes clear how political and legal factors prevail over linguistic arguments when it comes to the recognition of regional and minority languages. Not only the French unwillingness to recognize other languages in its territory other than standard French, but also the case of the Limburger language in Belgium and the Netherlands and that of Yiddish in the Netherlands and Sweden support this claim
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