The oldest reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonemes are mostly agreed upon, and the reflexes of... more The oldest reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonemes are mostly agreed upon, and the reflexes of those phonemes in Indic and Iranian are well-attested. However, there are significant problems with the proposed changes that led from PIE to Proto-Indo-Iranian and the subsequent daughter languages. This article reexamines the reflexes of PIE consonant-laryngeal clusters and the affricates (reflexes of PIE palatovelars), addressing problems with the proposals of past scholars, e.g., Lubotsky (2017), Cantera (2017), Beekes (1988), and Kortlandt (2007). Ultimately, I show that current accounts have violated important principles of historical-comparative linguistics, such as the heuristics of naturalness and economy. Additional proposed changes are typologically rare and can be explained otherwise. Other proposed changes are shown to be redundant and may be subsumed under independently attested developments.
There are a variety of different nominal systems within the Western Iranian languages. Nominals i... more There are a variety of different nominal systems within the Western Iranian languages. Nominals in some of these languages are maximally sensitive to case, number, gender, animacy, ezafe (modification), and definiteness. However, most of these languages only inflect for a subset of these categories. An additional peculiarity of these systems is that some of these languages feature wildly differing systems when inflectional features interact. For instance, Zazaki features a caseless system on indefinite nouns, a bicasual (two case) system on definite nouns, and as many as four cases (following Paul, 1998a) on modified nouns. This paper explores, synchronically and diachronically, the nominal systems observed in Western Iranian languages focusing on the interaction between (in)definiteness and modification by attributive adjectives. This constitutes a near-comprehensive juxtaposition of data that can serve as an essential reference for anyone who seeks to study and understand Ezafe and the article in New Western Iranian.
Applicative Morphology Neglected Syntactic and Non-syntactic Functions, 2022
Soranî (Central Kurdish) possesses a set of formatives of (pro)nominal and adpositional origin th... more Soranî (Central Kurdish) possesses a set of formatives of (pro)nominal and adpositional origin that combine with a verbal stem to introduce an additional pronominal indexed argument. Based on the definition used in this volume, these formatives fit neatly under the umbrella of applicative markers. However, they have only recently been described as such (Karim and Salehi 2020). Instead, traditional grammars have labeled these formatives “absolute prepositions,” a term that acknowledges their sometimes adpositional origin and their phonological similarity to synchronic adpositions. This study outlines the distribution of Soranî applicatives, their integration into the alignment system, and the formal differences between adpositional phrases and applicative constructions. Additionally, we provide a diachronic account of Soranî applicative markers. We show that they are likely just the latest stage in a grammaticalization cycle which took place several times in the history of Soranî.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, 2021
There is rich diversity in New Iranian nominal systems reflecting retentions from a common Old Ir... more There is rich diversity in New Iranian nominal systems reflecting retentions from a common Old Iranian ancestor and many significant innovations. My primary aim is to engage in a discussion of the typological richness of inflection among these languages as comprehensively as possible. This work represents a combination of synchronic and diachronic linguistics, where a thorough theoretically anchored synchronic analysis feeds my otherwise diachronic study. I have divided the work into distinct sections that represent issues concerning the nominal morphology of the Iranian languages, focusing on those spoken in the Kurdish zone. These sections, taken together, demonstrate the breadth of issues concerning New Iranian nominal morphology. I begin with a typological overview of nominal systems in New Iranian languages focusing on the interaction of case, number, gender, and attribution marking. At the intersection of these features exist several patterns that establish the issues addressed in subsequent sections. Perhaps the most well-studied phenomenon in Iranian nominal morphology is the ezafe (attribution marker). Here, I break from previous work on the ezafe phenomenon by describing the syntactic combinatorics of the various attribution/possession strategies in New Iranian languages in a categorial framework (HTLCG). This analysis unifies two facts of Iranian languages: (1) adjectives are both attributive and substantive, and (2) nouns are the marked entity in attributive constructions. I use the principles established in my discussion of the ezafe to unify the analysis of the Iranian noun-phrase syntax and nominal morphology based on foundational assumptions of inferential–realizational morphology and Categorial Grammar. Additionally, I propose several novel solutions to issues in Iranian historical morphology.
There are several features of Akkadian that set it apart from other Semitic languages. One such f... more There are several features of Akkadian that set it apart from other Semitic languages. One such feature is the assumption of seven alefs that descended from Proto-Semitic phonemes, *ʔ, *h, *ʕ, *ɣ, *ħ, and sometimes *w and *j. The standard account is that they merged before being lost in nearly every environment. Additionally, ʔ 3-5 interact with the low-back vowel, [a], producing [e]. Two other issues regarding the shift from [a] to [e] is which environments [e] surfaces in to be reanalyzed, and the fact that there are several roots that have [e] and no apparent conditioning environment. In this article I provide a solution to these issues clarifying the conditioning environments obscured by Akkadian orthography and Semitic derivational morphology. I show that voicing assimilation alone is responsible for the different outcomes of *ħ and *ʕ, which have the same distribution. This assimilation has parallels in non-guttural roots such as *√ntn, which becomes √ndn in Akkadian. Whether *ʕ and *ħ surface as <∅> or <ḫ> depends less on the underlying form than on assimilation to the voicing value of the adjacent consonant radical. With this analysis, there is no reason left to reject Kowenburg's theory (2006) that gutturals became glides which cause raising to ]e[, with the slight amendment that it is the voiced variant *ʕ alone which becomes a glide.
We survey research using neural sequence-to-sequence models as computational models of morphologi... more We survey research using neural sequence-to-sequence models as computational models of morphological learning and learnability. We discuss their use in determining the predictability of inflectional exponents , in making predictions about language acquisition and in mod-eling language change. Finally, we make some proposals for future work in these areas.
This is an early draft of ``Rethinking the Origins of the Kurdish Imperfective Affixes.'' The imp... more This is an early draft of ``Rethinking the Origins of the Kurdish Imperfective Affixes.'' The imperfective aspect in Kurdish varieties is marked by a prefixes, suffixes, preposed enclitics, or combinations thereof. Until this study, the etyma for these markers was unknown. The inability to identify etyma was because early scholars that approached this issue lacked access to the Southern Kurdish data, which points to a unary source for all the diverse formatives, the locative circumposition. The diversity of the formatives results from well-understood semantically motivated changes coupled with regular sound changes and analogy shared by all varieties and contact phenomena, introducing minute variation with exponential consequences. Additionally, the side effects of these changes likely contributed to the rise and fall of ergativity in Southern Kurdish.
The oldest reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonemes are mostly agreed upon, and the reflexes of... more The oldest reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonemes are mostly agreed upon, and the reflexes of those phonemes in Indic and Iranian are well-attested. However, there are significant problems with the proposed changes that led from PIE to Proto-Indo-Iranian and the subsequent daughter languages. This article reexamines the reflexes of PIE consonant-laryngeal clusters and the affricates (reflexes of PIE palatovelars), addressing problems with the proposals of past scholars, e.g., Lubotsky (2017), Cantera (2017), Beekes (1988), and Kortlandt (2007). Ultimately, I show that current accounts have violated important principles of historical-comparative linguistics, such as the heuristics of naturalness and economy. Additional proposed changes are typologically rare and can be explained otherwise. Other proposed changes are shown to be redundant and may be subsumed under independently attested developments.
There are a variety of different nominal systems within the Western Iranian languages. Nominals i... more There are a variety of different nominal systems within the Western Iranian languages. Nominals in some of these languages are maximally sensitive to case, number, gender, animacy, ezafe (modification), and definiteness. However, most of these languages only inflect for a subset of these categories. An additional peculiarity of these systems is that some of these languages feature wildly differing systems when inflectional features interact. For instance, Zazaki features a caseless system on indefinite nouns, a bicasual (two case) system on definite nouns, and as many as four cases (following Paul, 1998a) on modified nouns. This paper explores, synchronically and diachronically, the nominal systems observed in Western Iranian languages focusing on the interaction between (in)definiteness and modification by attributive adjectives. This constitutes a near-comprehensive juxtaposition of data that can serve as an essential reference for anyone who seeks to study and understand Ezafe and the article in New Western Iranian.
Applicative Morphology Neglected Syntactic and Non-syntactic Functions, 2022
Soranî (Central Kurdish) possesses a set of formatives of (pro)nominal and adpositional origin th... more Soranî (Central Kurdish) possesses a set of formatives of (pro)nominal and adpositional origin that combine with a verbal stem to introduce an additional pronominal indexed argument. Based on the definition used in this volume, these formatives fit neatly under the umbrella of applicative markers. However, they have only recently been described as such (Karim and Salehi 2020). Instead, traditional grammars have labeled these formatives “absolute prepositions,” a term that acknowledges their sometimes adpositional origin and their phonological similarity to synchronic adpositions. This study outlines the distribution of Soranî applicatives, their integration into the alignment system, and the formal differences between adpositional phrases and applicative constructions. Additionally, we provide a diachronic account of Soranî applicative markers. We show that they are likely just the latest stage in a grammaticalization cycle which took place several times in the history of Soranî.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, 2021
There is rich diversity in New Iranian nominal systems reflecting retentions from a common Old Ir... more There is rich diversity in New Iranian nominal systems reflecting retentions from a common Old Iranian ancestor and many significant innovations. My primary aim is to engage in a discussion of the typological richness of inflection among these languages as comprehensively as possible. This work represents a combination of synchronic and diachronic linguistics, where a thorough theoretically anchored synchronic analysis feeds my otherwise diachronic study. I have divided the work into distinct sections that represent issues concerning the nominal morphology of the Iranian languages, focusing on those spoken in the Kurdish zone. These sections, taken together, demonstrate the breadth of issues concerning New Iranian nominal morphology. I begin with a typological overview of nominal systems in New Iranian languages focusing on the interaction of case, number, gender, and attribution marking. At the intersection of these features exist several patterns that establish the issues addressed in subsequent sections. Perhaps the most well-studied phenomenon in Iranian nominal morphology is the ezafe (attribution marker). Here, I break from previous work on the ezafe phenomenon by describing the syntactic combinatorics of the various attribution/possession strategies in New Iranian languages in a categorial framework (HTLCG). This analysis unifies two facts of Iranian languages: (1) adjectives are both attributive and substantive, and (2) nouns are the marked entity in attributive constructions. I use the principles established in my discussion of the ezafe to unify the analysis of the Iranian noun-phrase syntax and nominal morphology based on foundational assumptions of inferential–realizational morphology and Categorial Grammar. Additionally, I propose several novel solutions to issues in Iranian historical morphology.
There are several features of Akkadian that set it apart from other Semitic languages. One such f... more There are several features of Akkadian that set it apart from other Semitic languages. One such feature is the assumption of seven alefs that descended from Proto-Semitic phonemes, *ʔ, *h, *ʕ, *ɣ, *ħ, and sometimes *w and *j. The standard account is that they merged before being lost in nearly every environment. Additionally, ʔ 3-5 interact with the low-back vowel, [a], producing [e]. Two other issues regarding the shift from [a] to [e] is which environments [e] surfaces in to be reanalyzed, and the fact that there are several roots that have [e] and no apparent conditioning environment. In this article I provide a solution to these issues clarifying the conditioning environments obscured by Akkadian orthography and Semitic derivational morphology. I show that voicing assimilation alone is responsible for the different outcomes of *ħ and *ʕ, which have the same distribution. This assimilation has parallels in non-guttural roots such as *√ntn, which becomes √ndn in Akkadian. Whether *ʕ and *ħ surface as <∅> or <ḫ> depends less on the underlying form than on assimilation to the voicing value of the adjacent consonant radical. With this analysis, there is no reason left to reject Kowenburg's theory (2006) that gutturals became glides which cause raising to ]e[, with the slight amendment that it is the voiced variant *ʕ alone which becomes a glide.
We survey research using neural sequence-to-sequence models as computational models of morphologi... more We survey research using neural sequence-to-sequence models as computational models of morphological learning and learnability. We discuss their use in determining the predictability of inflectional exponents , in making predictions about language acquisition and in mod-eling language change. Finally, we make some proposals for future work in these areas.
This is an early draft of ``Rethinking the Origins of the Kurdish Imperfective Affixes.'' The imp... more This is an early draft of ``Rethinking the Origins of the Kurdish Imperfective Affixes.'' The imperfective aspect in Kurdish varieties is marked by a prefixes, suffixes, preposed enclitics, or combinations thereof. Until this study, the etyma for these markers was unknown. The inability to identify etyma was because early scholars that approached this issue lacked access to the Southern Kurdish data, which points to a unary source for all the diverse formatives, the locative circumposition. The diversity of the formatives results from well-understood semantically motivated changes coupled with regular sound changes and analogy shared by all varieties and contact phenomena, introducing minute variation with exponential consequences. Additionally, the side effects of these changes likely contributed to the rise and fall of ergativity in Southern Kurdish.
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Papers by Shuan O Karim
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1638313342357598
APA Style (7th edition)
Drafts by Shuan O Karim
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1638313342357598
APA Style (7th edition)