bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Language Contact: Why Outsider System Morphemes Resist Transfer
Authors: Myers-Scotton Carol 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe premise of this paper is that morpheme types differ in related ways in their participation in various types of language contact. The paper focuses on codeswitching, suggesting that the morpheme type that comes from only one of the participating languages in codeswitching also resists transfer or replication across languages in other contact phenomena. This morpheme is called the "outsider" system morpheme under the 4-M model. The paper suggests that its role in structuring clauses across languages in general, along with hypotheses about how different morpheme types become available in language production, offer explanations regarding what can happen in language contact.
Language-Internal versus Contact-Induced Change: The Split Coding of Person and Number: A Stefan Elders Question
Authors: Shay Erin , Frajzyngier Zygmunt 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe aim of this study is to contribute to the methodology for determining whether a given characteristic of a language is a product of language contact or of language-internal grammaticalization. We have taken as a test problem a formal structure that is relatively rare across languages but that occurs in a few geographically proximate languages belonging to different families. The presence of a typologically rare phenomenon in neighboring but unrelated languages raises the question of whether the structure may be a product of cross-linguistic contact.The structures that we examine involve the split coding of person and number of the subject, in which a pronoun preceding the verb codes person only. Plurality of the subject is coded by a suffix to the verb, usually the same suffix for all persons. In some languages the split coding of person and number operates for all persons, while in others the split coding is limited to some persons only. This structure has been observed in several languages spoken in a small area of Northern Cameroon. Three of these languages, Gidar, Giziga, and Mofu-Gudur, belong to the Central branch of the Chadic family, while two other languages, Mundang and Tupuri, belong to the Adamawa branch of the Niger-Congo family. Outside of this geographical area, this structure has been observed in Egyptian, some Cushitic languages, and in some languages of North America.Since every linguistic phenomenon must have been grammaticalized in some language at some point, we must consider first whether there are language-internal prerequisites for such grammaticalization. For each language of the study, we show that the split coding of person and number may represent a product of language-internal development. The presence of the phenomenon in a language that does not have language-internal prerequisites can then be safely considered to be a product of language contact.
Social and Linguistic Factors as Predictors of Contact-Induced Change
Authors: Thomason Sarah 
Published: March 2011

AbstractTwo claims made by Thomason & Kaufman (1988) have elicited particularly strong reactions from specialists in language contact: first, that there are no absolute linguistic constraints on the kinds or numbers of features that can be transferred from one language to another; and second, that when social factors and linguistic factors might be expected to push in opposite directions in a language contact situation, the social factors will be the primary determinants of the linguistic outcome. Both claims have frequently been challenged in recent years, for instance by Gillian Sankoff, Ruth King, and Carol Myers-Scotton. To some extent the challenges are based on a misunderstanding of our arguments; most seriously, some critics argue that we dismiss linguistic predictors as entirely irrelevant to an analysis of contact-induced change. Since we discussed linguistic as well as social predictors of contactinduced change, it isn't true that, as King 2002 puts it, we claimed that 'linguistic factors… play no role' in determining the outcome of language contact (and Sankoff 2001 has a similar statement). In part, however, the objections to our position are based on genuine theoretical and/or empirical disagreements between Thomason & Kaufman and their critics. This paper explores these disagreements in an effort to arrive at a better understanding of the relative importance of social and linguistic predictors in language contact situations. My main conclusions are these: although critics have made impressive contributions toward specifying linguistic predictors, there is still no good reason to abandon the Thomason & Kaufman position (mainly because it was much less extreme than some readers have assumed); and much more work needs to be done to make even rough predictions about the relative impact of particular social and linguistic factors, and their interactions, in particular contact situations.
What to Do when You are Unhappy with Language Areas but You do not Want to Quit
Authors: Tosco Mauro 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe article deals with the concept of "linguistic area" and its problems.Section 1. deals with the history of the concept, as originally formulated by Trubetzkoy in 1923, showing how logical problems were present since the very beginning.In Section 2. a few possible preconditions for a scientifically sound definition of "area" are proposed and discussed, and their application is exemplified in Section 3. with the case of the languages of Northern Eritrea.It is suggested that the concept of "area" is in principle more interesting in linguistics than in social sciences due to the availability in linguistics of two other unrelated and powerful tools: genetic classification and typology. It is in the light of these other tools that language areas will have to be judged – as what lies beyond the range of both genetic and typological linguistics. It is suggested that ideally, in order for a linguistic area to be "proven": its members will have to be as genetically diverse as possible; and it will not be possible to account for the area-defining features on the basis of typological tendencies and regularities. Moreover, language areas described in terms of similar traits should not be overlapping, and attention will have to be paid in keeping language-external facts (such as historical contact and cultural similarities) at bay and not let them guide our search for language areas.It is further argued that, since one cannot expect the members of the area to be maximally different genetically (i.e., totally unrelated), nor the outcome of contact to be maximally irregular typologically (i.e, typologically impossible), real-world areas cannot plausibly meet these strong requirements in toto. The most one can expect is a gradual implementation of these conditions: language areas will have to be defined negatively as a space-based clustering of features which can not be accounted for genetically or typologically, and membership in them will have to be recognized as continuous rather than discrete.
The Sore Zones of Identity: Past and Present Debates on Funerals in Kyrgyzstan
Authors: Jacquesson Svetlana 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIdentity has been approached in a number of ways but the analyses have usually been centred on the interactions among the living. In this paper I address the question: Does identity play a role when the living pay their respects to the deceased? I argue that the answer is 'yes' in the Kyrgyz case. The paper explores the past and present debates on Kyrgyz funerary practices and focuses more particularly on what could be called, following Herzfeld (1997), the 'sore zones' of identity and the challenge they represent to themodern state.
Abandoned or Merely Lost inTranslation?
Authors: Schoenhals Michael 
Published: March 2011

AbstractPolitical action and political thinking ('ideology') provide the twin sets of data on which most conventional analyses of the Chinese Communist Party's transformation are made to rest. The twenty-first century's unprecedented concern with information and communication technologies has underscored, however, the need for analysts to upgrade the relevance of political language to any actionable appreciation of an untidy present and forecasting of a potentially turbulent future. A study that focuses on how language and state officialdom intersect in the areas of propaganda and nationalities/ethnic affairs is reported here. Its findings show how in China in the reform-era of the 1980s and 90s, language control and strategic management of political discourse exercised by cadres in the party propaganda apparatus helped forestall a development along Soviet lines ending with the sudden collapse of the socialist state. The findings indicate that the postreform future – which in parts of the country has, in fact, already arrived – is likely to see the contested disappearance of the traditional symbols and rhetoric of socialism 'as we know it', but that this transformation of discourse must be distinguished from the demise of socialism per se.
The Black Box: Notes on the Anthropology of the Enemy
Authors: Ssorin-Chaikov Nikolai 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis article critically revisits the Foucauldian perspective on modernity by exploring the constitutive importance of limits of transparency in relations of power and knowledge. It differentiates between Foucault's Panopticon as a model for modernity, which posits a total visibility of subject under modern gaze, and what I call cybernetic ways of knowing that posit the 'black box' of the inner self that is blocked from visibility. The case in point is a comparative study of two anthropologies – two groups of anthropological cadres – the American anthropologists who in the 1940s were involved in emerging Soviet studies, and Soviet anthropologists of the 1920s and 1930s who took part in Soviet reforms. The article draws attention to similarities in their perspective of images and notions of the enemy: the 'enemy of the people' within Soviet society and the Soviet society as the West's Cold War enemy. In doing so, the aim of this article is to develop an ethnographic perspective on state socialism that does not depend on a foundational dualist distinction between 'Soviet' and 'Western' or 'socialist' and 'capitalist' modernity as a starting point.
Chinese Socialism and Local Nationalism in the Discourse of Development
Authors: Guo Xiaolin 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis paper deals with 'development' — a state discourse formulated initially to transform the ethnic minority societies in China's southwest upon the founding of the People's Republic (PRC) — and how this state discourse has inadvertently served the interests of the ethnic elites in the course of China's current economic reforms. Half a century on, socialism on China's periphery has transformed from being an alien concept to acquiring its present catchphrase-status, underscoring a complex learning process on the part of ethnicminority cadres. Going beyond the conventional static view of binaries (typically, as often seen in English writings, Han versus non-Han and state versus society), this study explores the interaction of a wide range of forces within the political system that shape the dynamics of ethnicity and ethnic relations in China. It shows, as much as ethnic cadres are subject to certain restrictions of the local offices in which they serve, their manoeuvring and creative manipulation of the official language exerts equal constraints on the central state, especially in the context of economic development and nationalities policy. Such a mode of interaction generates, and at the same time mitigates the tension within the bureaucratic system. In this light, the 'embrace' of socialism by the ethnic cadres may indeed be seen as an adaptation through which they justify their relationship with the state. The magic of socialism is, therefore, not the ideology itself, but the policy implementation in its name. In a multiethnic region like southwest China, where ethnic identities remain fluid and local nationalism largely reflects inter-community relations vis-à-vis the state, socialism serves a unique conflict management function. This particular mechanism perhaps offers an explanation for the marked contrast between the former Soviet Union and PRC: in the former, socialism collapsed as a political system but not as a set of values, whereas, in the latter, socialism may have lost its appeal to the majority of the population as a set of values, but has not collapsed as a system.
Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns
Authors: Zuckermann Ghil'ad 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThe aim of this article is to suggest that due to the ubiquitous multiple causation, the revival of a no-longer spoken language is unlikely without cross-fertilization from the revivalists' mother tongue(s). Thus, one should expect revival efforts to result in a language with a hybridic genetic and typological character. The article highlights salient morphological constructions and categories, illustrating the difficulty in determining a single source for the grammar of Israeli, somewhat misleadingly a.k.a. 'Modern Hebrew'. The European impact in these features is apparent inter alia in structure, semantics or productivity. Multiple causation is manifested in the Congruence Principle, according to which if a feature exists in more than one contributing language, it is more likely to persist in the emerging language. Consequently, the reality of linguistic genesis is far more complex than a simple family tree system allows. 'Revived' languages are unlikely to have a single parent. The multisourced nature of Israeli and the role of the Congruence Principle in its genesis have implications for historical linguistics, language planning and the study of language, culture and identity.
Migration, Modernisation and Ethnic Estrangement: Uyghur migration to Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, PRC
Authors: Hopper Ben , Webber Michael 
Published: March 2011

AbstractIn the People's Republic of China, minority nationality peoples have the same formal rights as Han Chinese. However, in Xinjiang, the modernisation project is taking precedence over ethnic harmony as recruitment practices are increasingly disadvantaging the Uyghurs, despite earlier affirmative action policies. Ethnographic and survey research among Urumqi's floating population indicates that Uyghurs are excluded from certain sectors, earn lower incomes and reside in poorer accommodation than Han Chinese, from whom they remain spatially and socially segregated. As the state increasingly relies on the invisible hand of the market, so the commodification of labour relations and property is amplifying social rifts between nationalities. Uneven regional development prompts Han people to migrate into Xinjiang and Uyghurs to migrate to the cities within Xinjiang, bringing these two ethnic groups into competition within a labour market. This has resulted in an ethnic division of labour that exacerbates inter- and intra-ethnic tensions.
A Mahāyānist Movement in the Luohei Shan (Lahu Mountains) of Southwestern Yunnan
Authors: Walker Anthony 
Published: March 2011

AbstractSome village communities of the mountain-dwelling, Tibeto-Burman speaking Lahu peoples support temples and an associated priesthood, whose principal purpose is to honour their creator-divinity G'ui sha. Neither temples nor ritual devotion to a High God are commonly present among the Lahu people's upland neighbours. Relatively small spirit shrines are the principal form of ritual architecture and high gods are typically seen as being unconcerned with human affairs; consequently, it can serve no useful purpose to “worship” them. This paper seeks to demonstrate that these peculiarities of Lahu custom and belief derive from a Mahayanist movement that swept through the Lahu mountain homelands in southwestern Yunnan, probably beginning in the late seventeenth to mid eighteenth centuries CE. The result was (a) the establishment of temples as the principal form of religious architecture among many (not all) Lahu communities and an identification of their high-god G'ui sha with the Buddha Śākyamuni and consequently–following Mahāyānist ideology – with transcendental Buddhahood.
Choibalsan's Great Mongolia Dream
Authors: Radchenko Sergey 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis article is an account of Soviet and Mongolian efforts to manipulate a nationalist insurrection in Chinese Altai in 1944–45. For the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin this insurrection, led by a Kazakh nationalist, Osman Batyr, offered an excellent opportunity to attend to Soviet security interests in Xinjiang. For the Prime Minister of the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR), Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Osman represented an important investment in the process of expanding the MPR's regional influence and prestige. Choibalsan intended to co-opt Osman in an expanded Great Mongolia, which he hoped to build up at China's expense by winning the loyalty of the Kazakhs in Xinjiang and the Mongol banners of what is now Inner Mongolia. Stalin supported Choibalsan's vision for a time, until he reached a broader accommodation with China, ending Soviet support for anti-Chinese nationalist movements and putting an end to Choibalsan's Great Mongolia Dream.
Buryat Literature as a Political and Cultural Institution from the 1950s to the 1970s
Authors: Chakars Melissa 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis paper explores the history of Buryat literature as an institution in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Buryat literature was not simply the creation of Buryat writers. Local Party and government officials, censors, editors, publishers, and others made a substantial contribution to the direction, promotion, and content of Buryat literature. Buryat literature, as well as writers, was widely promoted by local media. Literature was also taught regularly at all levels of education. Buryat writers did not produce any samizdat and they generally did not use literature as a way to explore their pre-Soviet or pre-Russian history and culture as did other Soviet nationalities. Instead, Buryat literature generally emphasised topics that promoted and supported the project of Soviet modernisation. It promoted the value of Soviet leadership, the importance of the friendship of nations and in particular the friendship between Buryats and Russians, and it promoted the idea that life was better for the Buryats in the Soviet Union than it had been in the past or could be anywhere else. In addition, it helped create a new Buryat history that showed how the Buryats played an important role in Soviet historical events such as the Civil War, the October Revolution, the collectivisation of agriculture, and the Second World War. Buryat literature was a place to define and promote the new Soviet Buryat nation and all its modern attributes.
'Our Primitive Customs' and 'Lord Kalym': The Evolving Buryat Discourse on Bride Price, 1880–1930
Authors: Newyear Tristra 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis paper explores the origins of debate regarding bride price (Rus. kalym) among the Buryats in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as expressed in literary texts and media reports. Buryats began denouncing the practice after the mid nineteenth century, when bride price became more monetised and burdensome for ordinary families arranging marriages for their sons. Progressive, literate Buryats proposed a new approach to marriage and women's roles, based on romantic affinity instead of economic interests. The debate moved community meetings (suglans) to literature and the stage at around the turn of the twentieth century. During the early Soviet era, bride price continued to be denounced by Buryat writers, though it had become increasingly rare. Kalym was transformed into a symbol for women's oppression in general, and a means for demarcating the backwards Buryat past from the progressive Soviet future.
The Adaptation of Young Rural Buryats to Ulan-Ude's Urban and Educational Space
Authors: Buyanova Anna Yur'evna 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis article explores the repercussions of the demographic changes currently taking place in Buryatia. In particular, it concerns the mass migration of young rural Buryats to Ulan-Ude, in search of a higher education and, eventually, better career prospects. In-depth interviews with a sample of Buryat university students are used to reveal the challenges rural incomers face in adapting to urban life, and the differing strategies they use to overcome them. As these interviews show, the success of a rural Buryat's university career depends on their capacity to change their behaviour and aspirations to fit urban cultural norms.
'With Poem-Bullets Around Our Waist': A Translation of Choinom's Poem 'Buriad' With Notes
Authors: Empson Rebecca , Terbish Baasanjav 
Published: March 2011

AbstractThis article examines Mongolian perspectives on the Buriad through the vector of a poem called 'Buriad', written by the dissident Mongolian poet and writer Choinom Renchin during the socialist era. In the first part, we give a short biography of Choinom, along with an analysis of his poem. We suggest that the poem may be viewed as a critique of dominant Halh perspectives on the Buriad, while raising more general issues to do with historicity, political repression, youth, love, and Mongolian poetry. In the second part, we present the first-ever English translation of Choinom's poem, along with a Mongolian Cyrillic version. This is to add to the slender volume of literature on Mongolian poetry available in English.
Heritage versus Big Business: Lessons from The YUKOS Affair
Authors: Zhukovskaya Natalia 
Published: March 2011

AbstractTwo antagonistic forces confronted each other on the territory of the Republic of Buryatia in 2002. One of them was YUKOS, an international petroleum company, the other the Tunka National Park, a legally protected nature reserve of national importance. The essence of the conflict was the intention of YUKOS to build a pipeline from Angarsk (a town in the Irkutsk province of Russia) to Daqing (a city in the Heilongjian province in China) directly through the territory of the national park, though the law forbade it. The mighty YUKOS, supported by the Government and President of Buryatia, faced resistance from Buryat ecologists, the administration and personnel of the national park, and the rank-and-file of Tunka district – cattle-breeders, farmers, teachers, doctors, pensioners – all of whom understood that the ecology of the park would suffer irretrievably, compromising both its natural riches and beauty, and many cultural and historical objects: archaeological sites, sacred groves, clan cemeteries, places of shamanist and Buddhist worship, etc. The practitioners of the local religions, such as shamans, Buddhist lamas and divinators of mountain spirits, united to organise special rituals and prayers around the places of worship and sacred objects, asking the local deities and spirits to defend their worshippers, their land, and their sanctuaries. Although the final collapse of YUKOS was determined politically, the experience of Tunka has demonstrated that oil magnates should not arrogantly disregard the populations and cultures of the territories they intend to utilise for their business activities.