Linguistics
Subject: Linguistic diversity in Quechuan
Supervisor: Dr. Eitan Grossman, Prof. Willem Adelaar
Abstract: The goal of classical ‘Greenbergian’ typology is to identify language universals, and to answer the question: what is a possible language? However, since the groundbreaking work of Nichols (1992), the field of linguistic typology has slowly shifted. Today, the main focus of typology is linguistic diversity as a problem in its own right. Bickel (2007) goes so far as to write that the goal of modern day typology is “to explain why linguistic diversity is the way it is.” This recent development, which can be called the ‘Nichols-Bickel transform,’ has raised a new set of questions and problems, and have supplemented classical structural and functional explanations with the need to address historical contingency as a causal factor in explanatory theories of language structures. The study aims both to describe diversity within Quechuan but also to explain it, based on ‘emerging’ linguistic features. It also aims to better our understanding of linguistic diversity by means of linking it to what we know of language change. It will try to tackle such questions as: What are emergent features? Why are they more prone to change, i.e., less stable? Why do renewed features not stabilize or if they do stabilize, what makes them do so? What leads one language variety to follow a certain pathway whereas another follows a different one? This last question has been called the ‘actuation’ problem by Weinreich et al. (1968), and it is considered one of the most recalcitrant problems of language change.
Bio: Rammie Cahlon is a PhD candidate enrolled in a joint program with Leiden University. His research focuses on linguistic diversity and language change and his doctorate research deals with the role of variance in the stabilization process of unstable features. His research interests include areal typology, language typology, language change pathways, transitivity and argument structure, Creoles, Andean and Scandinavian languages.
Presidential Stipend 2014/15