In response to recent skepticism concerning the relevance of the concept of the Sprachbund, this paper argues that there is value in preserving the notion, but only with substantial updating. What is proposed here is a more dynamic, three-dimensional depiction of the linguistic area, as embodied in the concept of a “Stratified Convergence Zone.” In order to assess the usefulness of this redefined notion of the Sprachbund, the paper examines evidence from the periphrastic perfects and resultatives of three proposed Sprachbünde – the Balkan Sprachbund, the Charlemagne Sprachbund, and the Peipus-Bund of the Circum-Baltic area. In each case, the two-dimensional image of a Sprachbund only succeeds in presenting the end product of these complex changes, in synchronic fashion, without accounting for the sources of these similarities or their socio-historical contexts. It is argued that only a three-dimensional, chronologically-stratified model can adequately represent these developments.
(ed.)2000Tense and aspect in the languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Dahl, Östen & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm
(eds.)2001The Circum-Baltic languages: Typology and contact. 2 vols. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dahl, Östen & Viveka Velupillai
2013The Perfect. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.) (Available online at [URL]).
Décsy, Gyula
1973Die linguistische Struktur Europas: Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft. Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz.
Drinka, Bridget
2017Language contact in Europe: The periphrastic perfect through history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin
(eds.)2013The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at [URL])
Flobert, Pierre
1975Les verbes deponents latins des origins à Charlemagne. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Friedman, Victor
1976Dialectal synchrony and diachronic syntax: The Macedonian perfect. In Sanford B. Steever, Carol A. Walker & Salikoko S. Mufwene (eds.), Papers from the parasession on diachronic syntax, April 22, 1976. 96-104. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Friedman, Victor
1994Surprise! Surprise! Arumanian has had an Admirative!Indiana Slavic Studies 7. 79–89.
Graves, Nina
2000Macedonian – a language with three perfects? In Östen Dahl, (ed.), 479–94.
Hamp, Eric
1989Yugoslavia – A Crossroads of Sprachbünde. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie 25. 44–47.
Haspelmath, Martin
1998How young is Standard Average European?Language Sciences 20. 271–287.
Haspelmath, Martin
2001The European linguistic area: Standard Average European. In Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Worfgang Raible (eds), 1492–1510.
2001Language typology and change. Sprachtypologie und sprachliche Universalien. La typologie des langues et les universaux linguistiques. Vol. 2. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Heine, Bernd
1997Possession: Cognitive sources, forces, and grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haarmann, Harald
1976Aspekte der Arealtypologie: Die Problematik der europäischen Sprachbünde. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Holvoet, Axel
2001Impersonals and passives in Baltic and Finnic. In Östen Dahl & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (eds.) Vol. 2. 363–389.
Jakobson, Roman
1931Über die Phonologischen Sprachbünde. Travaux du Circle Linguistique de Prague. 4. 234–140. Reprinted 1971 in Roman Jakobson. Selected Writings. Vol. 1. The Hague: Mouton, 137–143.
Joseph, Brian D.
2001Is Balkan comparative syntax possible? In María Luisa Rivero & Angela Ralli (eds.) 17–43.
Koptevskaja-Tamm, Maria, & Bernhard Wälchi
2001The Circum-Baltic languages: An areal-typological approach. In Östen Dahl & Maria Koptevskaja-Tamm (eds.). Vol. 2. 615–761.
2010The possessive perfect construction in Estonian. Folia Linguistica 44. 371–400.
Mathiassen, Terje
1985A discussion of the notion ‘Sprachbund’ and its application in the case of the languages in the Eastern Baltic area (Slavic, Baltic, and West Finnish). International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics 31–32 (1985) 273–281.
Matras, Yaron, April McMahon & Nigel Vincent
(eds.)2006Linguistic areas: Convergence in historical and typological perspective. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave.
Metslang, Helle
2001On the developments of the Estonian aspect: The verbal particle ära. In Östen Dahl & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (eds.), Vol 2. 443–479.
1996Ein Beitrag zur Arealtypologie der Ostseeanrainersprachen. In Norbert Boretzky, Werner Enninger & Thomas Stolz (eds.). Areale, Kontakte, Dialekte, Sprachen und ihre Dynamik in mehrsprachigen Situationen. 51–67. Bochum: Brockmeyer.
Rivero, María Luisa & Angela Ralli
(eds.)2001Comparative syntax of Balkan languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sandfeld, Kristian
1930Linguistique balkanique: Problèmes et résultats. Vol. 31. Paris: Champion.
Stolz, Thomas
1991Sprachbund im Baltikum?: Estnisch und Lettisch im Zentrum einer sprachlichen Konvergenzlandschaft. Bochum: Brockmeyer.
Stolz, Thomas
2006All or nothing. In Yaron Matras, April McMahon & Nigel Vincent (eds.), 32–50.
Thielmann, P
1885Habere mit dem Part. Perf. Pass. Archiv für lateinische Lexicographie und Grammatik 2. 372–423; 509–549.
Thieroff, Rolf
2000On the areal distribution of tense-aspect categories in Europe. In Östen Dahl (ed.), 264–305.
Timberlake, Alan
1976Subject properties in the North Russian passive. In Charles Li & Sandra Thompson (eds.). Subject and topic. New York: Academic Press. 547–570.
Timberlake, Alan
1993Russian. In Bernard Comrie and Greville Corbett (eds.), 827–886.
Trubetzkoy, Nikolai
1928Proposition 16. Acts of the First International Congress of Linguists. 17–18.
van der Auwera, Johan
(ed.)1998Adverbial constructions in the languages of Europe. (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, EUROTYP 20–3) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
van der Auwera, Johan
1998Conclusion. In Johan van der Auwera (ed.), 813–836.
Vasilev, Christo
1968Der romanische Perfekttyp im Slavischen. In Erwin Koschmieder & Maximilian Braun (eds.), 215–230.
Whorf, Benjamin L.
1956Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. J. B. Carroll (ed.). Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Wünsch, Thomas
2008Deutsche und Slawen im Mittelalter: Beziehungen zu Tschechen, Polen, Südslawen und Russen. Munich: R. Oldenbourg.
Cited by
Cited by 16 other publications
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Summary and Conclusion. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 445 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Introduction. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 3 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt,
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Concepts, Contexts, Corpora. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 23 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Semi-formulaic Phrases. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 413 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Discourse Markers. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 323 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Formulaic Language. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 365 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. The Basics of Coptic Grammar. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 99 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Verb Phrases. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 237 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. The Grammar of the Corpus (Standard and Variation). In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 131 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Adverbial Phrases. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 295 ff.
Fendel, Victoria Beatrix Maria
2022. Corpus of Texts. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. 485 ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. Copyright Page. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. iv ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. Sigla. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. xiii ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. List of Abbreviations. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. xi ff.
[no author supplied]
2022. Dedication. In Coptic Interference in the Syntax of Greek Letters from Egypt, ► pp. v ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 february 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.