Kenneth Shields

The role of deictic particles in the IE personal pronoun system

AbstractIt is well known that deictic particles were affixed to personal pronouns in Indo-European. Three possible functions of these deictics are explored, and the most reasonable explanation is identified on the basis of comparative and typological evidence. In short, it is argued that these deictics served to derive emphatic pronominal forms.

Germanic locative adverbs in *- on -

In this paper it is proposed that Germanic locative adverbs in *- on - bear an etymological relationship to Hittite ablatives in - anza and therefore yield additional evidence for the archaic nature of the Germanic dialect group.

LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN ACCUSATIVE PLURAL

In light of the fact that the traditional reconstruction of the Indo-European non-thematic accusative plural suffix *-ns, as the combination of the accusative desinence *-m and the plural ending *-s, violates a linguistic universal which stipulates: «If morphemes of both number and case are present and both follow or both precede the noun base, then the exponent of number almost always comes between the noun base and the exponent of case» (The Universals Archive of the Association for Linguistic Typology), this article explores a possible etymology of the suffix which is consonant with that universal. Specifically, a proposal based on what Adrados 1992 calls «the new image of Indo-European» is developed in which both elements of the suffix are construed as original deictic particles.

Latin Super, Hittite Šer, and the Indo-European Numeral ‘7’

Latin Super, Hittite Šer, and the Indo-European Numeral ‘7’ In this brief paper, it is argued that the initial *s- found in the Latin and perhaps Greek reflexes of the Indo-European adprep *uper(i) ‘over, above’ derives from blending with another adprep of the same meaning, *ser(i). Evidence is also presented for the creation of another blend involving these two forms, *sep-, which may underlie the Indo-European root for ‘7’. This latter assertion is strengthened by typological precedent.

Typological Assessment of Reconstruction: Did Indo-European Have Inclusive and Exclusive First Person Plural Personal Pronouns?

Typological Assessment of Reconstruction: Did Indo-European Have Inclusive and Exclusive First Person Plural Personal Pronouns? This brief article attempts to apply current typological theory about the structure of person-marking paradigms to reconstructions of early Indo-European personal pronoun declension and early Indo-European verbal conjugation in order to determine whether or not such application can shed light on the traditional debate about whether or not an inclusive/exclusive opposition can be ascribed to the protolanguage. Despite the demonstrated positive value of typology in assessing the plausibility of reconstructions, the conclusion reached here is that current typological theory is very limited in its ability to resolve this particular issue of historical/comparative Indo-European linguistics.

A note on the pronominal origin of the Indo-European first person singular verbal desinence

Abstract Although it is widely assumed that the athematic verbal suffixes of Indo-European derive etymologically from affixed personal pronouns, the problem has remained to explain why the first person singular secondary ending *-m appears to have as its etymon the oblique stem of the corresponding pronoun, not the nominative form in *eg(h)om. However, in light of current views of the process of grammaticalization, it is plausible to assert that *eg(h)om does indeed underlie the desinence*-m.

On the origin of the Latin decad-morpheme -gint-

In this brief article it is proposed that the problematic - g - of the Latio decad morpheme - gint - derives from a specifically Latin manifestation of the voiced sandhi variant of the Indo-European non-singular marker in *- k . This theory is based on some recent research concerning the evolution of the category of number and the system of numerals in Indo-European.