The Tocharian Gender System

A Diachronic Study in Nominal Morphology
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-53288-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 25, 436 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 798 g

Reihe: Brill's Studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics

This book investigates archaisms and innovations in Tocharian nominal morphology: it provides a comprehensive treatment of the morphology of Tocharian grammatical gender, describing how it historically derived from the Indo-European proto-language and why it typologically deviates from most of the other Indo-European languages. The approach is both synchronic and diachronic, with a heavier focus on diachrony. The volume features a thorough study of a large number of nominal classes and pronominal forms, which are analysed from a derivational and an inflectional point of view in order to clarify their origin and development from the perspective of Indo-European comparative reconstruction. With its wide coverage of intricate phonological and morphological patterns, The Tocharian Gender System is an important contribution to the study of Tocharian nominal morphology as a whole.

Autoren/Hrsg.

del Tomba, Alessandro

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations and Symbols

List of Tables

1 Introduction

1.1 Tocharian

1.2 Tocharian Grammatical Gender

1.3 Aim

1.4 Structure and Outline of the Book

2 The Gender System of Tocharian

A Synchronic and Typological Overview

2.1 Grammatical Gender: Methodological and Theoretical Background

2.2 The Gender System of Tocharian

2.3 The Gender Assignment System of Tocharian

2.4 The Gender System of Proto-Indo-European: State of the Art and Open Questions

2.5 Summary and Conclusions

3 Gender in the Inflection of the Noun

3.1 Tocharian Nominal Categories

3.2 Tocharian Noun Declension

3.3 Aim and Structure of the Chapter

3.4 Nouns Denoting Female Entities

3.5 Grammatical Gender and the Development of Inflectional Classes from class vi (nom.pl. -ñ)

3.6 The Evolution of the PIE Neuter in the Noun Inflection of Tocharian

3.7 Summary and Conclusions

4 Gender in the Inflection of the Pronoun and Adjective

4.1 General Aim, Methodology and Structure of the Chapter

4.2 Overview of the Tocharian Pronominal System

4.3 Evolution of the Tocharian Demonstrative Pronouns

4.4 Evolution of the Pronominal Adjective TB allek, TA alak ‘other’

4.5 Conclusion

4.6 Overview of the Tocharian Adjectival System

4.7 Reconstruction of the Proto-Tocharian Adjectival Paradigms

4.8 Evolution of the Gender System: From Proto-Indo-European to Tocharian

5 Retrospective and Conclusion

5.1 Synchronic Analysis

5.2 Diachrony of the Masculine

5.3 Diachrony of the Feminine

5.4 Diachrony of the Genus Alternans

5.5 Outlook

Bibliography

Index Verborum

Über Autor(innen)

Alessandro Del Tomba, Ph.D. (2020) in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (Leiden University) and Linguistics (Sapienza University of Rome), is currently Research Fellow at Sapienza University of Rome. He has published on Proto-Indo-European phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax, with a focus on Tocharian and Eastern Middle Iranian languages.