From prefixes to suffixes: Typological change in Northern Australia
Date
2006
Authors
Harvey, M.
Green, I.
Nordlinger, R.
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Journal article
Citation
Diachronica: international journal for historical linguistics, 2006; 23(2):289-311
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Harvey, Mark; Green, Ian; Nordlinger, Rachel
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Abstract
This article provides a counterexample to the commonly held, if unexamined, proposition that morphemes reconstructed as affixes do not change their position with respect to the root. We do not expect to find that a proto-prefix has suffix reflexes, nor that a proto-suffix has prefix reflexes. In this paper we show, through detailed reconstruction, that paradigms of class/case suffixes in a number of Northern Australian languages derive historically from a paradigm of proto-prefixes, through the encliticization and reduction of prefixed demonstratives to nominals. This process has only left a few traces of the demonstrative stems in the synchronic forms.
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© Copyright 2006 John Benjamins.