TY  - JOUR
A1  - LaPolla, Randy J.
T1  - On the utility of the concepts of markedness and prototypes in understanding the development of morphological systems
T2  - Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology
N2  - In attempting to understand the history of the morphology of a language or group of languages, we occasionally face a problem of isomorphy, where two or more semantic categories evince the same formal marking. We then must decide which use of that particular form of marking is the oldest, and also determine the possible source and path of development of the marking. In languages with written documents of great time depth this is often not a problem, but in unwritten languages it can be quite difficult. This paper discusses two tools that can be used for this purpose: the concepts of markedness and prototypes.
KW  - Tibetobirmanische Sprachen ; Sinotibetische Sprachen
Y1  - 2010
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/14865
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-1157905
UR  - http://victoria.linguistlist.org/~lapolla//rjlapolla/papers/mkpr.pdf
VL  - 66
IS  - 4
SP  - 1149
EP  - 1185
ER  -