The formal aspects of non-concatenative morphology have received considerable attention in recent years, but the diachronic dimensions of such systems have been little explored. The current work applies a modern methodological and theoretical framework to a classic problem in Arabic and Semitic historical linguistics: the highly allomorphic system of 'stem-internal' or 'broken' plurals. It shows that widely-accepted views regarding the historical development of this system are untenable and offers a new hypothesis. The first chapter lays out a methodology for comparative-historical research in morphology. The next two chapters present an analysis of Arabic morphology based on contemporary formal linguistic approaches, and applies this analysis to the noun plural system. Chapter Four shows that neither semantic shift nor ablaut-type sound change account adequately for the data. The fifth chapter offers a systematic comparison of the plural systems of Semitic languages, incorporating much new research on the languages of South Arabia and Ethiopia. Chapter Six proposes a new reconstruction.

The formal aspects of non-concatenative morphology have received considerable attention in recent years, but the diachronic dimensions of such systems have been little explored. The current work applies a modern methodological and theoretical framework to a classic problem in Arabic and Semitic historical linguistics: the highly allomorphic system of 'stem-internal' or 'broken' plurals. It shows that widely-accepted views regarding the historical development of this system are untenable and offers a new hypothesis. The first chapter lays out a methodology for comparative-historical research in morphology. The next two chapters present an analysis of Arabic morphology based on contemporary formal linguistic approaches, and applies this analysis to the noun plural system. Chapter Four shows that neither semantic shift nor ablaut-type sound change account adequately for the data. The fifth chapter offers a systematic comparison of the plural systems of Semitic languages, incorporating much new research on the languages of South Arabia and Ethiopia. Chapter Six proposes a new reconstruction.

This volume consists of selected and revised papers from the Seventh International Morphology Meeting, held in 1996 in Vienna. It presents advances in morphological theorizing, such as the foundations of sign-based morphology, the morphology-syntax interface, the boundaries between compounding and derivation, derivation and inflection, and the emergence of morphology from premorphological precursors in early first-language acquisition. The contributions deal with morphological analyses in various fields of the ever-widening domain of morphology and its relevance to the lexicon. The comparative aspect is reflected in the above-mentioned areas, and through the variety of languages investigated: Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages of Europe, and Asian, African and American languages. This breadth allows valuable insights into current problems of morphological research in America, Western and Eastern Europe.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Systems and Frameworks for Computational Morphology, SFCM 2013, held in Berlin, in September 2013. The 7 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 15 submissions and are complemented with an invited talk. The papers discuss recent advances in the field of computational morphology.

The essays in this volume are dedicated to the memory of William L. Moran (1921-2000). They are written by his friends and former colleagues at the two institutions where he spent a good part of his life and career: the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome (1958-1966) and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University (1966-1990). The contributions reflect Bill's wide-ranging interests in Assyriology, Biblical Studies, and Semitic Philology. T. ABUSCH, The Promise to Praise the God in Suilla Prayer. P. STEINKELLER, Of Stars and Men: The Conceptual and Mythological Setup of Babylonian Extispicy. N. LOHFINK, Die An- und Absageformel in der hebraischen Bibel: Zum Hintergrund des deuteronomischen Vieruberschriftensystems. R. NEUDECKER, Der Lehrer-Gott vom Berg Sinai: Ein interreligioser Zugang. C. MORRISON, The Function of qtal hwa in Classical Syriac Narrative. A. GIANTO, Some Notes on Evidentiality in Biblical Hebrew. J. HUEHNERGARD, Features of Central Semitic.

This volume is a collection of 12 papers which originated from a research project on ‘Europe and the Mediterranean from a linguistic point of view: history and prospects’. The papers deal with specific morphosyntactic aspects of language structure and evolution. The comparative perspective is adopted both from a synchronic (typological) and a diachronic (historical) angle, focusing in particular on possible contact phenomena. Therefore, methodological key words of this book are areal typology and linguistic area. The issues addressed cover such diverse aspects of language structure and change as verb morphology, relative clause formation, Noun Phrase determination, demonstrative systems, possessive markers in Noun Phrases, conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions, non-canonical object marking, impersonal constructions, reduplication and early translations of the Gospels. These topics are discussed particularly in relation to Romance, Germanic, Celtic and Semitic languages, both modern and ancient. This book will interest researchers in typological, historical, functional and general linguistics.

Contrastive Linguistics, roughly defined as a subdiscipline of linguistics which is concerned with the comparison of two or more (subsystems of) languages, has long been associated primarily with language teaching. Apart from this applied aspect, however, it also has a strong theoretical purpose, contributing to our understanding of language typology and language universals. Issues in theoretical CL, which also feature in this volume, are the choice of model, the notions of equivalence and contrast, and directionality of descriptions. Languages used for illustration in this volume include English, German, Danish, and Polish.