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Loanword typology| old_uid | 7805 |
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| title | Loanword typology |
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| start_date | 2009/12/10 |
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| schedule | 10h-12h |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | Amphi Jean Moulin |
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| summary | How likely is it that a word with a given lexical meaning will be borrowed from one language into another language? At the moment, this question can be answered only on the basis of impressionistic observations, such as “body part terms are unlikely to be borrowed”, or “terms for new artifacts are often borrowed”. But it would be interesting to know more about the likelihood of borrowing for particular lexical meanings, in order to answer such questions as the following: a) What lexical items are most reliable as tests of genealogical affiliation of languages? b) What kinds of lexical borrowing are fostered by particular kinds of contact situations? c) What is the effect od structural factors on lexical borrowing, such as part of speech. The Loanword Typology Project attempts to answer these questions using the classical methods of linguistic typology: (i) establishing a world-wide sample of languages; (ii) surveying the types of loanwords found in these languages, on the basis of a fixed list of 1460 lexical meanings; (iii) proposing generalizations across the languages of the sample. The talk will discuss the project in more detail and present some of its results, including a more in-depth discussion of the project component relating to Bezhta, an East Caucasian language of western Daghestan. |
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| responsibles | Kern |
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