Linguistic innovations and evolution of registers in the Deir el-Medineh community: Scribal networks and families during the 20th dynasty

Conference (2011, April 05)

The aim of this lecture was to investigate the relation between scribal variation and language change in pre-Demotic Egyptian, focusing more specifically on “The best case scenario in the worst cultural ... [more ▼]

The aim of this lecture was to investigate the relation between scribal variation and language change in pre-Demotic Egyptian, focusing more specifically on “The best case scenario in the worst cultural environment”, i.e. the text community of Deir el-Medineh during the 20th Dynasty. The talk was methodologically oriented and several case-studies (related to the diaphasic and diachronic dimensions of variation) were presented in order to illustrate some principles and to suggest new ways of investigation in the description of Ancient Egyptian variation. Additionally, the possibility of a scribal network analysis of the written material found in Deir el-Medineh has been discussed. [less ▲]

On the Pragmatics of Subjectification: Emergence and Modalization of an Allative Future in Ancient Egyptian

Conference (2010, November 11)

In this talk, we argue for a pragmatic basis for semantic change of the type observed in grammaticalization, viz., the conventionalization of conversational inferences (see, e.g., Bybee et al. 1994 ... [more ▼]

In this talk, we argue for a pragmatic basis for semantic change of the type observed in grammaticalization, viz., the conventionalization of conversational inferences (see, e.g., Bybee et al. 1994, Traugott & Dasher 2002, Ariel 2008) or more generally, the diachronic transfer of meaning from context to code (Givón 2005). Specifically, we claim that addressees (listeners/readers as active discourse participants) make inferences and in turn, as speakers/writers, propagate them, leading to their generalization. A crucial distinction must be made between SUBJECT-ORIENTED and SPEAKER-ORIENTED inferences, implicitly argued for in Bybee et al. (1994) and clearly downplayed in contemporary discussions such as Traugott & Dasher (2002). In SUBJECT-ORIENTED inferences, addressees interpret the utterance as a speaker’s report about the subject’s state of mind, while in the SPEAKER-ORIENTED ones, addressees interpret the utterance as reporting on the state of mind of the speaker. Speaker-oriented inferences are those that lead to the relaxing of selectional restrictions on subjects observed in a number of grammaticalization paths (illustration with allative future in the talk). Speaker-oriented inferences also lead to a rise in context-expansion and text frequency of constructions, which in turn catalyze many of the phenomena associated with grammaticalization. [less ▲]

A Functional Diachronic Approach to Prolepsis: The Complementation of PCU Verbs in Ancient Egyptian

Conference (2010, June 01)

Les langues égyptiennes à l'époque amarnienne : Point de révolution sous le soleil d'Aton

Article for general public (2010)

Interaction between modal domains: The case of the Subjunctive in Late Egyptian

Conference (2010, March 09)

How to get to the future without a verb of motion (or metaphors). The emergence of the Allative Future in Old Egyptian

Conference (2010, February 23)

Scribal Variation across Textsorten and Time. A Case-Study: Amennakhte son of Ipwy

Conference (2009, September 15)

Volonté, souhait & désir. Modalité et complémentation en néo-égyptien

Conference (2009, March 20)

MethIS, 2 : Pratiques du document

Book published by CEFAL/Editions de l'ULg (2009)

Pour une nouvelle philologie numérique : réflexions sur la relation texte(s) - document(s)

in MethIS : Méthodes et Interdisciplinarité en Sciences Humaines (2009), 2

Deux axes ont été privilégiés dans le développement des bases de données textuelles qui, depuis l’avènement de la micro-informatique, ont été constituées afin de faciliter et d’enrichir l’étude des ... [more ▼]

Deux axes ont été privilégiés dans le développement des bases de données textuelles qui, depuis l’avènement de la micro-informatique, ont été constituées afin de faciliter et d’enrichir l’étude des documents en langues anciennes. Le premier correspond à l’encodage, dans une version standardisée, de textes reproduisant une édition particulière ; ceux-ci sont aisément interrogeables, mais la dimension documentaire est systématiquement négligée : les informations relatives à la tradition manuscrite et, plus largement, au processus ecdotique, sont absentes. Le second axe, quant à lui, intègre exclusivement la dimension du document. Il demeure quantitativement (à la fois du point de vue du nombre de projets et de la quantité de textes concernés) peu représenté et qualitativement (type de données encodées, moteurs de recherche disponibles, etc.) non satisfaisant. Cette contribution se propose, par la combinaison de ces deux axes, d’envisager les « textes » et les « documents » dans leur complémentarité. En proposant une modélisation de la relation intrinsèquement simple qu’ils entretiennent, elle se veut une première étape du nécessaire processus d’interrogation de nos pratiques en matière de philologie numérique. [less ▲]