Brian Stross Anthropology 320L Fall 1995
LANGUAGE AND
PREHISTORY
J. Aitchison, LANGUAGE CHANGE (required)
L.R. Palmer, DESCRIPTIVE AND COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
(Required)
J. M. Williams, ORIGINS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (optional)
Week 1 INTRODUCTION overview, phonology, phonemic analysis, conditioning
environments, variation, allophony
Assignment: E.
Sapir "Language and Environment,"
AMERICAN
ANTHROPOLOGIST (l9l2) l2:l5-22 [also in SELECTED WRITINGS OF
EDWARD SAPIR, D. Mandelbaum ed.]; Williams, Ch. l,
2, and pp.
3O2-3l2.
Week 2 FOLKLORE & PREHISTORY history in myths, legends, texts, place
names, person names and titles, etc. (e.g. Popol
Vuh, ramon
nuts, footsteps of the year, fire asking, language
of Zuyua)
Assignment:
A. Dundes, THE STUDY OF FOLKLORE, pp. 373-399,
4l4-474.; B.
Stross, "Reconstructed humor in a Tzeltal ritual
formula," INT. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN
LINGUISTICS 39:32-43.;
Recommended: A. Recinos, D. Goetz and S.Morley,
POPOL
VUH.; I. Velikovsky, OEDIPUS AND AKHNATON. Amarna
princesses
Week 3 CHANGE IN WORDS & MEANINGS causes, types, effects,
evolution of
lexical systems (color terms, plant name categories,
pronouns, numerals),
markedness.
Assignment:Williams,Ch. 6,7,8.; B.Berlin,
"Speculations
on the growth of ethnobotanical
nomenclature," LANGUAGE
IN SOCIETY1:(l972):5l-86.;
Recommended:J.Greenberg,LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS.; E.Sapir,
"Internal linguistic evidence suggestive of the
northern
origin of the Navaho," in Mandelbaum (ed.)
S.W.E.S.;
Anttila, Ch. 7.
B. Stross, "The Language of Zuyua," AMERICAN
ETHNOLOGIST 1O (1):15O-164.
Week 4 LEXICOSTATISTICS AND RELATIVE
CHRONOLOGY glottochronology,
word composition, consecutive sound
changes, loanwords, age area inferences.
Assignment:
S. Gudschinsky, "The ABC's of
lexicostatistics.," WORD (l956): l75-2lO.; M.
Swadesh, "What
is glottochronology?" in M. Swadesh ORIGIN AND
DIVERSIFICATION
OF LANGUAGE,pp.27l-284.;
Recommended: D.Hymes, "Lexicostatistics so
far," CURRENT
ANTHROPOLOGY 1:3-44.; L. Campbell, QUICHEAN LINGUISTIC
PREHISTORY, pp. 63-5.
Week 5 SOUND CHANGE causes, types, spread, effects,
conditioning,
regularity, irregular sound changes, consecutive
sound changes.
Assignment:Williams,Ch l2,l3.,W.Labov, "The
social
motivation of a sound change," WORD l9:273-3O9 (also in W.
Labov, SOCIOLINGUISTIC PATTERNS).
Recommended:
W. Labov, SOCIOLINGUISTIC PATTERNS.;
B.
Stross, VARIATION ANDNATURAL SELECTION AS FACTORS IN
LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CHANGE.; Lehmann, Ch. lO.; H.
Hoenigswald, LANGUAGE CHANGE AND LINGUISTIC
RECONSTRUCTION,
Ch. 8-ll.;
Anttila, Ch. 4.
Week 6 THE COMPARATIVE METHOD comparative method, chance
resemblances, cognation, correspondences,
proto-sounds, proto-forms.
Assignment: Lehmann, Ch. 5; or C.F. Hockett, Ch.
57-6O;, or
Bloomfield, Ch. l8; or Anttila, Ch. lO, 11, l8; or
Hoenigswald,
LANGUAGE CHANGE AND LINGUISTIC RECONSTRUCTION,
Ch. l2.
Week 7 THE COMPARATIVE METHOD lexical reconstructon, interpretations,
diffusion problems.
Assignment: P. Thieme, "The comparative method
for
reconstructon in linguistics," in D. Hymes,
ed., LANGUAGE IN
CULTURE AND SOCIETY, pp. 585 - 598.; M. Swadesh, "Linguistics
as an instrument of prehistory," SOUTHWEST JOURNAL OF
ANTHROPOLOGY l5 (l959):2O-35.; M. Swadesh,
"Diffusional
cumulation and archaic residue as historical
explanations,"
SOUTHWEST JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY 7 (l95l):l-2l.
Recommended:
Campbell, Ch. 2, 4.
Week 8 INTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION morphophonemic alternation, underlying
forms, other inferences from internal evidence (e.g.
transparent etymology, marriage rules from kin
terms, etc.).
Assignment:
Recommended:
E. Sapir, "Time perspective in aboriginal
American culture," in D. Mandelbaum, ed.,
SELECTED WRITINGS OF EDWARD SAPIR;
and C. Hockett, Ch. 55,; or Lehmann, Ch.
6; or Anttila, Ch. l2, l3.
Week 9
DIALECT GEOGRAPHY, VARIATION, CONTACT
borrowing, trade and
conquest, population movements, migration theory,
ecological
consideration, homeland delineation.
Assignment:
Williams, Ch. 3, 4, 5.; L.
Campbell and T.
Kaufman,
"A linguistic look at the Olmecs,"
AMERICAN
ANTIQUITY
4l:8O-89; A. R. Diebold,
"Determining the
centers of dispersal of language groups," INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS 2l (l96O):l-lO.;
Recommended:
Campbell, Ch. 5.; N.A. Hopkins, "Historical
and sociocultural aspects...," in Blount &
Sanches,
SOCIOCULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE, pp.
l85-226.
B. Stross, "Oppositional Pairing in
Mesoamerican Divinatory
Day Names."
ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
25:273.
Week lO MORPHOLOGICAL AND
SYNTACTIC CHANGE causes, types,
effects,
relation to sound change, child language
Assignment: Williams,
Ch. 9, lO, ll.; Lehmann, Ch. ll; or
Bloomfield, pp. 4O4-424; or Anttila, Ch. 5.; V. Bricker,
PRONOMINAL INFLECTON IN THE MAYAN LANGUAGES.;
J. Gumperz (art. in Tyler or Casson ed.).
Recommended:
H. Hoenigswald, LANGUAGE CHANGE AND LINGUSTIC
RECONSTRUCTION, Ch. 3-7.; U. Weinreich, LANGUAGES IN
CONTACT.
Week ll WRITTEN RECORDS writing and scripts, decipherment and
interpretation of written records, Maya hieroglyphs,
Silas John,
comment on B.Fell's interpretations, using texts and dictionaries.
Assignment:
Williams, Ch. 4, l3.; Lehmann,
Ch. 4; B. Stross
"The Burden of Office" MEXICON 1O:118-121.
Recommended:
I.J. Gelb, A STUDY OF WRITING.; K. Basso,
"A Western Apache writing system," in
Blount and Sanches
(eds.) SOCIOCULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE,
pp.
227-252.B.Stross" MayaHieroglyphicWriting and
Mixe-Zoquean," ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
24:73-134. B.
Stross "Late Formative Writing in
Mesoamerica." VISIBLE
LANGUAGE.
Week l2 GENEALOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF
LANGUAGES
evidence
of relationships, subgrouping, proto-languages
and "common languages", family tree representations.
Assignment:
Campbell, Ch. 3.; L. Campbell and T. Kaufman,
"On
Mesoamerican linguistics," AA 82:85O-857.; S. Witkowski and
C. Brown, “Mesoamerican historical linguistics and
distant
genetic relationship" AA 83:9O5-9ll.; Campbell
and Kaufman,
"Mesoamerican historical
linguistics..." AA 85:362-372.
Recommended:
Anttila, Ch.l5.; J.Robertson,"A proposed
Revision in Mayan subgrouping," IJAL 43:lO5-l2O.; Brown &
Witkowski "Aspects of the phonological history
of Mayan-
Zoquean," IJAL 45:34-47. L. Campbell, "Distant genetic
relationship and the Maya-Chipaya
hypothesis,"
ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS l5:ll3-l35.
Week l3 TYPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF
LANGUAGES language universals,
typologies, areal influences.
Assignment:
E. Dozier, "Two examples of linguistic
acculturation," LANGUAGE 32 (l956):l46-l57.
H. Hoijer,
"Linguistic and cultural change," LANGUAGE 24 (l948):335-345.
Recommended:
Lehmann, Ch. 3; J.H. Greenberg (ed.),
UNIVERSALS OF LANGUAGE [especially Ch.
l,2,5,6,7,lO].;
Anttila,Ch.l6.; J.Sherzer,"Areal and
typological
classification..."
Week l4 MODELS OF LANGUAGE
AND COMMUNITY
WITH REFERENCE TO CHANGE. Tree and wave notions,
Sociolinguistic factors, discourse analysis,
summary of methods, history.
Assignment: Recommended: J.H. Greenberg, ESSAYS IN
LINGUISTICS.; H. Pedersen, THE DISCOVERY OF LANGUAGE.;
Lehmann, Ch. 9.;
I. Dyen and D.F. Aberle, LEXICAL RECONSTRUCTION.;
Recommended:
B. Stross "Glyphs on Classic Maya Vessels:
The Introductory Formula of the Primary Standard
Sequence."
PALENQUE ROUND TABLE.
Supplementary Texts
J.W. Anderson,
STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
R. Anttila, AN INTRODUCTION TO HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE
LINGUISTICS
D. Bickerton, ROOTS OF LANGUAGE
L. Bloomfield, LANGUAGE
T. Bynon, HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
L. Campbell, QUICHEAN LINGUISTIC PREHISTORY
H.H. Hock, PRINCIPLES OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
C.F. Hockett, A COURSE
IN MODERN LINGUISTICS
R. King, HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
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INTERNET RESOURCES
AncientScripts
Linguistic Prehistory Links
_____________________
comments: mailto:bstross@mail.utexas.edu
01/29/2000
