- Historical Linguistics, Morphology (Languages And Linguistics), Celtic Studies, Celtic Linguistics, Welsh linguistics, Irish linguistics, and 8 moreBreton linguistics, Cornish Language, Semantics, Morphosyntax, Languages and Linguistics, Middle Welsh language and literature, Linguistic Typology, and Grammatical Numberedit
- I am a postdoctoral researcher in general linguistics at the Department of Languages, University of Helsinki. I am th... moreI am a postdoctoral researcher in general linguistics at the Department of Languages, University of Helsinki. I am the PI of a a project on singulatives (https://blogs.helsinki.fi/singulatives/) in which we aim to to establish a cross-linguistically informed definition of singulatives (derived singular forms) and study their distribution in different language families and in different grammatical number systems.
Between 2015-2018 I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, working on a monograph based on my doctoral thesis and various articles on the Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh). I got my PhD from Cambridge in 2015 and during my PhD I also spent a year at Philipps-Universität Marburg studying German and general linguistics (funded by the Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Scholarship). I hold a BA (Celtic Studies) and an MPhil from Aberystwyth University.
I am the PI in linguistics in this exciting interdisciplinary project on comparing evolutionary processes in nature and society: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/hatresearch/
I am a co-organiser of the annual Welsh Linguistics seminar: https://sites.google.com/site/ieithyddiaeth/
I organised the symposium New Approaches to Brittonic Historical Linguistics in 2017: bit.ly/2qAeThh
TEACHING
At Helsinki University, I'm teaching courses on Historical Linguistics, Celtic Linguistics as well occasional lecturing in medieval literature of the British Isles.
In 2017/18 I taught the module Middle Welsh Language and Literature at Maynooth University, Ireland.
In 2014/15 I was a teaching assistant at the Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge and taught the following courses or parts of courses: Middle Welsh Language and Texts, 2nd year students (covering all weekly language classes and two literature lectures); Middle Welsh Language and Texts, 1st years (4 language classes); Advanced Medieval Welsh texts, 3rd years (8 Middle Welsh language classes and 4 revision classes, all Middle Cornish and Breton language classes [weekly], and one advanced literature seminar); Old Irish Language and Texts, 1st years (2 classes/week for Lent term); 2 lectures for Palaeography and Codicology; I was also the general coordinator for Middle Welsh responsible for arranging supervisions (small group tutorials) and managing the course materials online on Moodle. During the other years of my PhD I also did supervisions in Middle Welsh, Celtic Philology and two courses at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Cambridge (Historical Linguistics and Morphology) as well as some lectures in Celtic Philology.edit - Paul Russelledit
Full PDF downloadable from the Wiley website (link below) if you're a PhilSoc member or at a university that subscribes to PhilSoc publications.... more
Full PDF downloadable from the Wiley website (link below) if you're a PhilSoc member or at a university that subscribes to PhilSoc publications.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467968x/2019/117/S1?fbclid=IwAR1D1T31PEz6dreKKAX4YW6znf6CSE-b0W2T4sAxVaXQlSzGmg9RBRAWwEY
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1467968x/2019/117/S1?fbclid=IwAR1D1T31PEz6dreKKAX4YW6znf6CSE-b0W2T4sAxVaXQlSzGmg9RBRAWwEY
Research Interests:
This paper investigates the semantics and distribution of two Russian suffixes,-in and-k, each of which has been treated both as singulative and diminutive. However, we argue thatin is singulative and-k diminutive.-in systematically... more
This paper investigates the semantics and distribution of two Russian suffixes,-in and-k, each of which has been treated both as singulative and diminutive. However, we argue thatin is singulative and-k diminutive.-in systematically applies to mass nouns and creates count ones with the meaning "a natural unit of N", where the nature of the unit is lexically fixed and based on our conceptualization of the entity denoted by the stem. We propose that-in is a standardized partition operator ΠNU of type <<e,t>,<e,t>>, which imposes division into natural units. In contrast,-k is a diminutive suffix whose main sub-meanings are smallness in size and affection. Under the semantic use, it maps the argument to a low degree on a size scale. Syntactically, it is the head of SizeP, located immediately above DivP. Finally, we analyse the suffix-ink, dividing it into compositional-ink (goroš-ink a 'a small/nice pea') and noncompositional-ink (snež-ink-a 'snowflake'; *snež-in-a does not exist). Compositional-ink consists of two suffixes-in and-k, with the singulative and the diminutive functions, respectively. Non-compositional-ink is a single suffix imposing division into natural units and further contributing a presupposition that such units are inherently small.
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The singulative is a category that has never been mapped out crosslinguistically. This article begins to do that, starting with a definition and a disambiguation of terminology related to grammatical methods of individuation and... more
The singulative is a category that has never been mapped out crosslinguistically. This article begins to do that, starting with a definition and a disambiguation of terminology related to grammatical methods of individuation and unitization. The singulative is argued to be one strategy to denote individuals and units, and it occurs as part of many different number systems. I present a typological overview of markers, both those which are straightforward to analyse as singulatives and more ambiguous examples. This allows us to test and define the boundaries of this category and its overlap with others (e.g. the diminutive). I also suggest some diachronic developments which further illustrate the relationship between singulatives and other categories.
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Chapter on semantics in the open access Welsh-medium handbook Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth [Introduction to Linguistics] (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth). ************** Pennod ar semanteg yn llawlyfr... more
Chapter on semantics in the open access Welsh-medium handbook Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth [Introduction to Linguistics] (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth). **************
Pennod ar semanteg yn llawlyfr mynediad agored Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth).
Pennod ar semanteg yn llawlyfr mynediad agored Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth).
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Chapter on morphology in the open access Welsh-medium handbook Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth [Introduction to Linguistics] (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth). ************** Pennod ar forffoleg yn llawlyfr... more
Chapter on morphology in the open access Welsh-medium handbook Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth [Introduction to Linguistics] (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth).
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Pennod ar forffoleg yn llawlyfr mynediad agored Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth).
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Pennod ar forffoleg yn llawlyfr mynediad agored Cyflwyniad i Ieithyddiaeth (https://www.porth.ac.uk/en/collection/cyflwyniad-i-ieithyddiaeth).
Research Interests:
This is the contribution on Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish, Welsh) to the first volume of the Mouton Handbooks of Indo-European Typology. The paper describes the mechanisms of expressing gradation and comparison in the oldest stages... more
This is the contribution on Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish, Welsh) to the first volume of the Mouton Handbooks of Indo-European Typology. The paper describes the mechanisms of expressing gradation and comparison in the oldest stages of these three languages, including similatives, equatives, comparatives, superlatives, elatives, and excessives.
Supplementary examples to the numbered sections can be found here: https://gitlab.uzh.ch/paul.widmer/mhiet-vol1-gradation
Supplementary examples to the numbered sections can be found here: https://gitlab.uzh.ch/paul.widmer/mhiet-vol1-gradation
Research Interests:
This paper investigates adjectival agreement in a group of Middle Welsh native prose texts and a sample of translations from around the end of the Middle Welsh period and the beginning of the Early Modern period. It presents a new... more
This paper investigates adjectival agreement in a group of Middle Welsh native prose texts and a sample of translations from around the end of the Middle Welsh period and the beginning of the Early Modern period. It presents a new methodology, employing tagged historical corpora allowing for consistent linguistic comparison. The adjectival agreement case study tests a hypothesis regarding position and function of adjectives in Middle Welsh, as well as specific semantic groups of adjectives, such as colours or related modifiers. The systematic analysis with an annotated corpus reveals that there are interesting differences between the genres, as well as between individual texts. However, zooming in on our adjectival agreement case study, we conclude that these differences do not correspond to many of our hypotheses or assumptions about how certain texts group together. In particular, no clear split into native and translated texts emerged between the texts in our corpus. This paper thus shows interesting results for both (historical) linguists, especially those working on agreement, and scholars of medieval Celtic philology and translation texts.
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This chapter came out of a project comparing derivational networks in a sample of 40 European languages of different families. For a description of the volume and the methodology, see... more
This chapter came out of a project comparing derivational networks in a sample of 40 European languages of different families. For a description of the volume and the methodology, see https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/573230?tab_body=overview.
Research Interests:
This chapter came out of a project comparing derivational networks in a sample of 40 European languages of different families. For a description of the volume and the methodology, see... more
This chapter came out of a project comparing derivational networks in a sample of 40 European languages of different families. For a description of the volume and the methodology, see https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/573230?tab_body=overview.
Research Interests:
This paper looks at the cross-linguistically rare phenomenon of suppletion in number in adjectives. I consider how such suppletion arises by looking at six known examples with a special focus on the Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish... more
This paper looks at the cross-linguistically rare phenomenon of suppletion in number in adjectives. I consider how such suppletion arises by looking at six known examples with a special focus on the Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh) which are discussed as an extended case study. Three generalisations are suggested on the basis of the typological study. First, adjectives denoting size (" small " and " big ") are at the centre of this phenomenon. Second, where the etymology of the adjectives is known, the plural member of the suppletive pair for " small " develops from a lexeme denoting something having been divided into or consisting of small parts. These lexemes can also be used with some singular nouns and in such cases their reference is to the component structure of the referent. Finally, adjectives with number suppletion tend to mark plural number consistently in environments in which plural marking is otherwise optional or rare.
Research Interests:
A noun category in Welsh which has a shorter form for a collection/plural meaning and a suffixed singulative for a single instance has been described in the literature as both a number category and a plural allomorph, often with... more
A noun category in Welsh which has a shorter form for a collection/plural meaning and a suffixed singulative for a single instance has been described in the literature as both a number category and a plural allomorph, often with terminological ambiguity and blurring of boundaries between different noun types. This paper is an investigation of the features of these nouns using a number of theoretical approaches which cumulatively support the argument that collective can be considered a full number category in Welsh.
Research Interests:
Some languages use a special form of the noun (a ‘numerative’) after some or all numerals. In such languages, a distinct numerative is typically not available for all nouns, but rather only for a small subset, forming a morphological... more
Some languages use a special form of the noun (a ‘numerative’) after some or all numerals. In such languages, a distinct numerative is typically not available for all nouns, but rather only for a small subset, forming a morphological “minor category” (Corbett 2000). In this article, we examine how such a system emerges and disintegrates diachronically. We look in detail at this phenomenon in Welsh, a language in which a distinct numerative emerged as the result of the phonological attrition of the plural suffix and analogical extension of new plural suffixes in all relevant syntactic environments except after numerals. Nouns with distinct numeratives tend to be animate nouns and nouns denoting units frequently counted, an association previously noted also for minor duals (Plank 1996). We suggest that this association arose in Welsh via differential analogical extension in two directions: animates resisted analogical extension of the pattern numeral + singular noun; and animates were most receptive to analogical extension of the patterns numeral + numerative. We show that the loss of the numerative proceeded the same way in reverse: numeratives were first reanalysed as special plurals, and this pattern, numeral + plural noun, resisted analogical spread of the dominant numeral + singular pattern most robustly with kinship terms and a unit of time, namely ‘year’. These developments show a good deal of commonality with other cases where the diachrony of the numerative is known, confirming the observation that numeratives typically emerge from the disintegration of a major category, such as plural or dual, and that they are diachronically unstable, liable ultimately to analogical elimination.
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Research Interests:
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A corpus of 15th-century Welsh prose manuscripts. Transcribed by Katherine Himsworth, Kate Leach, Diana Luft, Silva Nurmio, Richard Glyn Roberts, Sara Elin Roberts, Sarah Rowles, Paul Russell, Raphael Sackmann, Patrick Sims-Williams &... more
A corpus of 15th-century Welsh prose manuscripts. Transcribed by Katherine Himsworth, Kate Leach, Diana Luft, Silva Nurmio, Richard Glyn Roberts, Sara Elin Roberts, Sarah Rowles, Paul Russell, Raphael Sackmann, Patrick Sims-Williams & Anthony Vitt
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This is the full corpus that forms the basis of my monograph, Grammatical Number in Welsh: Diachrony and Typology. Link: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3632585
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This is a searchable text corpus of Welsh prose texts from thirteenth-century manuscripts.
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Powerpoint presentation to a paper presented at the 40th Celtic Studies Association of North America (CSANA) meeting at UCLA, 8-11 March 2018.
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Aberystwyth University MPhil thesis, 2010. Full text here: http://hdl.handle.net/2160/5086 (English below) Ceir tair rhan yn y traethawd hwn. Casglwyd pob ffurf luosog a geir yn y ffynonellau canlynol, ac fe’u rhestrir mewn tabl o... more
Aberystwyth University MPhil thesis, 2010. Full text here: http://hdl.handle.net/2160/5086
(English below)
Ceir tair rhan yn y traethawd hwn. Casglwyd pob ffurf luosog a geir yn y ffynonellau canlynol, ac fe’u rhestrir mewn tabl o 2012 o ffurfiau lluosog yn Atodiad I: glosau Hen Gymraeg a geir yn llawysgrifau’r nawfed ganrif; Llyfr Llandaf; Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin; Llyfr Aneirin; a barddoniaeth Beirdd y Tywysogion. Seilir yr astudiaeth, felly, ar destunau mewn sampl o lawysgrifau a ddyddir cyn tua 1300. Yn Rhan 1 dadansoddir enwau ac ansoddeiriau a chanddynt fwy nag un ffurf luosog yn y sampl. Sefydlir y lluosog gwreiddiol drwy gymharu ffurfiau cytras yn yr ieithoedd Celtaidd eraill, ac awgrymir geirdarddiad o’r Gelteg neu o’r Indo-Ewropeg sy’n dangos bôn y gair. Weithiau ni cheir olion clir o’r lluosog gwreiddiol yn y testunau sydd gennym, fel yn achos enwau diryw bôn-o ac enwau bôn-ā y byddai eu lluosog yn unffurf â’r unigol yn hanesyddol. Yn yr ail ran o’r traethawd trafodir pob ffurfiad lluosog sy’n ymddangos yn Rhan 1, gan gynnwys terfyniadau lluosog, affeithiad-i, enwau torfol, pluralia tantum, ac enwau a all weithiau fod yn unigol ac weithiau’n lluosog. Rhestrir pob ffurf luosog berthnasol o Ran 1, a gwahaniaethir rhwng y rhai sy’n dilyn y ffurfiadau’n hanesyddol a’r rhai a gafwyd drwy gydweddiad. Yn y modd hwn, gwelir pa derfyniadau a ledai yn aml, a pha rhai a dueddai i gael eu disodli. Yr wyf yn cynnwys geiriau benthyg yn y drafodaeth hon, a dadleuaf eu bod yn datblygu yn yr un modd ag y gwnâi’r geiriau brodorol, hynny yw, gallent ddilyn tarddiad y gair Lladin, neu gallent fabwysiadu ffurfiau lluosog newydd drwy gydweddiad.
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This thesis has three main parts. First, each plural form was collected from the following sources and listed in a table of 2012 plural forms given as Appendix 1: Old Welsh glosses found in ninth-century manuscripts, The Book of Llandaf; The Black Book of Carmarthen; The Book of Aneirin; and the Poetry of the Beirdd y Tywysogion ('the Poets of the Princes'). The study is therefore based on texts in a manuscript sample going up to about the year 1300. Part 1 provides an analysis of nouns and adjectives with more than one plural form in the sample. The historically original plural is determined through a comparison with cognates in the other Celtic languages and a Celtic and/or Indo-European etymology is suggested that shows the stem of the word. Sometimes no original plural form is available anymore, as in the case of neuter o-stems and (feminine) ā-stems the plural form of which would have been homonymous with the singular after apocope. In Part 2 of the thesis, I discuss each plural formation from Part 1, including plural suffixes, i-affection, collective nouns, pluralia tantum, and nouns which can be treated as both singular and plural. I list all the plural forms from Part 1, differentiating between those which are historical and those formed by analogy. Thus it is possible to see which plural markers would tend to spread, and which were more likely to be superseded by other markers. I include loan words in the discussion and argue that they develop similarly to native words, that is, they may follow the stem-class of the Latin source word, or take up new plural forms through analogy.
(English below)
Ceir tair rhan yn y traethawd hwn. Casglwyd pob ffurf luosog a geir yn y ffynonellau canlynol, ac fe’u rhestrir mewn tabl o 2012 o ffurfiau lluosog yn Atodiad I: glosau Hen Gymraeg a geir yn llawysgrifau’r nawfed ganrif; Llyfr Llandaf; Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin; Llyfr Aneirin; a barddoniaeth Beirdd y Tywysogion. Seilir yr astudiaeth, felly, ar destunau mewn sampl o lawysgrifau a ddyddir cyn tua 1300. Yn Rhan 1 dadansoddir enwau ac ansoddeiriau a chanddynt fwy nag un ffurf luosog yn y sampl. Sefydlir y lluosog gwreiddiol drwy gymharu ffurfiau cytras yn yr ieithoedd Celtaidd eraill, ac awgrymir geirdarddiad o’r Gelteg neu o’r Indo-Ewropeg sy’n dangos bôn y gair. Weithiau ni cheir olion clir o’r lluosog gwreiddiol yn y testunau sydd gennym, fel yn achos enwau diryw bôn-o ac enwau bôn-ā y byddai eu lluosog yn unffurf â’r unigol yn hanesyddol. Yn yr ail ran o’r traethawd trafodir pob ffurfiad lluosog sy’n ymddangos yn Rhan 1, gan gynnwys terfyniadau lluosog, affeithiad-i, enwau torfol, pluralia tantum, ac enwau a all weithiau fod yn unigol ac weithiau’n lluosog. Rhestrir pob ffurf luosog berthnasol o Ran 1, a gwahaniaethir rhwng y rhai sy’n dilyn y ffurfiadau’n hanesyddol a’r rhai a gafwyd drwy gydweddiad. Yn y modd hwn, gwelir pa derfyniadau a ledai yn aml, a pha rhai a dueddai i gael eu disodli. Yr wyf yn cynnwys geiriau benthyg yn y drafodaeth hon, a dadleuaf eu bod yn datblygu yn yr un modd ag y gwnâi’r geiriau brodorol, hynny yw, gallent ddilyn tarddiad y gair Lladin, neu gallent fabwysiadu ffurfiau lluosog newydd drwy gydweddiad.
***********************************************************************************************************
This thesis has three main parts. First, each plural form was collected from the following sources and listed in a table of 2012 plural forms given as Appendix 1: Old Welsh glosses found in ninth-century manuscripts, The Book of Llandaf; The Black Book of Carmarthen; The Book of Aneirin; and the Poetry of the Beirdd y Tywysogion ('the Poets of the Princes'). The study is therefore based on texts in a manuscript sample going up to about the year 1300. Part 1 provides an analysis of nouns and adjectives with more than one plural form in the sample. The historically original plural is determined through a comparison with cognates in the other Celtic languages and a Celtic and/or Indo-European etymology is suggested that shows the stem of the word. Sometimes no original plural form is available anymore, as in the case of neuter o-stems and (feminine) ā-stems the plural form of which would have been homonymous with the singular after apocope. In Part 2 of the thesis, I discuss each plural formation from Part 1, including plural suffixes, i-affection, collective nouns, pluralia tantum, and nouns which can be treated as both singular and plural. I list all the plural forms from Part 1, differentiating between those which are historical and those formed by analogy. Thus it is possible to see which plural markers would tend to spread, and which were more likely to be superseded by other markers. I include loan words in the discussion and argue that they develop similarly to native words, that is, they may follow the stem-class of the Latin source word, or take up new plural forms through analogy.