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Article published In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 7:3 (2017) ► pp.389–431

Patterns of affix borrowing in a sample of 100 languages

| Universiteit van Amsterdam | Universität zu Köln

Borrowing affixes may be rare compared to lexical borrowing, but it is not random. The current study describes regular patterns of affix borrowing in a database containing 649 borrowed affixes, challenging a number of previous claims about relative borrowability, in particular regarding inflectional categories. It is shown that borrowing affixes of all major nominal and verbal inflectional categories, including case markers and argument indexes, is well attested. Borrowing case markers, for instance, appears to be just as common as borrowing plural markers. By factoring in the “availability” for borrowing (i.e. whether a potential donor language has a relevant affix), it can be shown that nominal categories are far more frequently borrowed than verbal categories. Additionally, it is shown that sets of borrowed affixes often consist of interrelated sets of forms, e.g. forming paradigms, rather than being isolated forms from different morphosyntactic systems, in particular for the more tightly integrated inflectional subsystems. The frequency and systematicity by which inflectional affixes are borrowed calls for a reconsideration of the role of inflection in models of language contact.

Keywords: language contact, morphology, typology
Article outline
  • 1.What constrains affix borrowability?
  • 2.Data and methods
    • 2.1Language sample
    • 2.2What counts as a borrowed affix?
    • 2.3Data coding
  • 3.Properties of individual morphemes
    • 3.1Derivational vs. inflectional affixes
    • 3.2Borrowed inflectional affixes without borrowed derivational affixes
    • 3.3Differential borrowability within subsystems
      • 3.3.1Number markers
      • 3.3.2Case markers
      • 3.3.3Argument indexes
      • 3.3.4Tense-aspect-mood/modality affixes
      • 3.3.5Valency-changing affixes
      • 3.3.6Comparative and superlative
      • 3.3.7Ordinal numeral derivation
    • 3.4Summary: Asymmetries in borrowing affix categories
  • 4.Morphosyntactic Subsystem Integrity
    • 4.1Paradigmatic and syntagmatic interrelatedness
    • 4.2Overall interrelatedness
    • 4.3Different effects on different subsystems
    • 4.4Summary: Interrelatedness in sets of borrowed affixes
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 26 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.16002.sei
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