[Histling-l] Deflexion query

[Cynthia Allen]

Thanks, Evie! It had already struck me that the earliest uses I had seen of the term were from Dutch linguists writing in English, and it is useful to have this background.
Cindy

Dr Cynthia L. Allen FAHA
Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University
Baldessin Precinct Building Room W2.09

School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics
Building 110
Australian National University
Acton ACT  2601

From: histling-l <histling-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Evie Coussé
Sent: Friday, 19 March 2021 7:43 PM
To: histling-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Histling-l] Deflexion query

Dear Cindy,

The term strikes me as very common in Dutch. I looked for it as in some historical grammars of Dutch and found it spelled as "deflexie" in the index of:

Marijke van der Wal (1992) Geschiedenis van het Nederlands. Houtem: Spectrum
Marijke Mooijaart & Marijke van der Wal (2008) Nederlands van Middeleeuwen tot Gouden Eeuw. Leiden: Vantilt.

These references are not very old but they might be an indication that Muriel Norde maybe got the term from a Dutch linguistic tradition.

Kind regards,
Evie Coussé

Från: histling-l <histling-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:histling-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> För Nigel Vincent
Skickat: den 19 mars 2021 09:27
Till: Cynthia Allen <cynthia.allen at anu.edu.au<mailto:cynthia.allen at anu.edu.au>>; histling-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:histling-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Ämne: Re: [Histling-l] Deflexion query

Dear Cindy,
I was intrigued by your query and took a quick look at the indexes of some volumes to hand on my shelves. I found nothing in the immediately obvious places but then came across multiple references (with the spelling 'deflection') in the index of Yakov Malkiel 'From Particular to General Linguistics. Essays 1965-1978'. This a collection of his papers and the earliest that uses the term there is from 1968. He treats it as an ordinary term with no special attempt to define it so I guess it was current well before that time.
Best
Nigel


Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA MAE
Professor Emeritus of General & Romance Linguistics
The University of Manchester

Linguistics & English Language
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
The University of Manchester



https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/researchers/nigel-vincent(f973a991-8ece-453e-abc5-3ca198c869dc).html
________________________________
From: histling-l <histling-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:histling-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> on behalf of Cynthia Allen <cynthia.allen at anu.edu.au<mailto:cynthia.allen at anu.edu.au>>
Sent: 19 March 2021 8:48 AM
To: histling-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:histling-l at mailman.yale.edu> <histling-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:histling-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
Subject: [Histling-l] Deflexion query


Greetings,

I've been trying to nail down the earliest use of 'deflexion'/'deflection' in reference to loss of inflection/inflectional categories. It is not a widely used term, but has been prominently used in the early 2000s by Muriel Norde and then myself, for example. The earliest reference I have found is in Trask's (2000) The dictionary of historical and comparative linguistics. I would like to find out who first used this term, and would be grateful for any earlier references.



Dr Cynthia L. Allen FAHA

Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University

Baldessin Precinct Building Room W2.09



School of Literature, Languages, and Linguistics

Building 110

Australian National University

Acton ACT  2601


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/histling-l/attachments/20210321/76b2d7eb/attachment-0001.html>