Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Sally RiceUniversity of Alberta
SAA 2008
Vancouver, BA
Ways of Becoming: Dynamic Processes in the Creation of Athapaskan Identities and Landscapes
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques(polysynthesism)
(cognates)
aspects of the languages that appeal to linguists
vs.
linguistic clues that are of use to archaeologists and anthropologists
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: Vs, Ns, particles
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
~30 extant languages
very large & complex sound system
“polysynthetic” [m-m-m-m-m]verb
somewhat fusional [m-m-mnmn-m]verb
verb = an array of prefixes + final stem
head final, head marking [S O V, o..s..V]
a classificatory verb system
few POS categories: V, N, particle
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
why cognates are hard to find
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
small stem inventory (< 1300)
verb heavy, noun light
little lexical borrowing
reliance on endolexicon
suppletion
redeployment
vagueness, polysemy
figurativity, noncompositionality
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
reliance on endolexicon
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
suppletion
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
redeployment
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
redeployment
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
redeployment
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
redeployment (and stem variation)
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
redeployment
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
vagueness, polysemy
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
polysemyTypological
Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
figurativity
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
non-compositionality
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
Krauss (1969), Krauss & Leer (1981)
29 languages (µ < 10)
270 reconstructed forms / cognate “sets”
focus on Na-Dene comparison and PA reconstruction
Cook (2004)
7 languages
37 cognate sets
focus on Apachean and Northern relationships
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
Cook (2004)
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
DISTANCE Beaver Carrier Chipewyan Navajo Sarsi Western A Jicarilla A Beaver 0 Carrie r 61 0 Ch ipewyan 54 62 0 Nava jo 63 71 63 0 Sarsi 72 72 71 72 0 Wes te rn A 73 75 72 49 72 0 J ica rilla A 78 76 70 48 70 49 0
Cook (2004)
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
Cook (2004)
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
shrinking linguistic evidence
vs.
increasing physical evidence
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
larger and less cherry-picked cognate inventory
systematic and culturally informed semantic field analysis
new sound recordings and transcriptions of relevant items
digitized data, searchable database
Received and Not-So-Received Wisdom aboutAthapaskan Linguistics for Archaeologists
Typological Overview
Facts of Lexical Life
In Pursuit of Cognates and
Calques
Masi chok!
...and colleagues and research assistants:
Tom Cook
Greg Kondrak
Stephanie Ball-Heming
Jack Ives
Eric Zhang & TAPoR
Special thanks to the following speakers...
Valerie Wood
John Janvier
Bruce Starlight
Mary Koyina-Richardson
Andy Norwegian
Maureen Olsen