Comparative Syntax of the Balkan Languages (Oxford ... - Cryptm.org

26 BRIAN D. JOSEPHdepends on what one's goals are. For example, for the purposes of tying any resultsinto the Sprachbund phenomenon so well documented for the languages ofthe Balkans, the most enlightening comparisons will be those involving surfacephenomena, which are likely to be transferred in language contact situations. Onthe other hand, comparisons involving parametric variation or parallels at deeperlevels of structure are illuminating insofar as they shed light on UniversalGrammar, for instance, or clarify the extent of a superficial similarity, althoughthey do not provide any input into an understanding of the contact that createdthe Balkan Sprachbund.What is most useful here as a means to a resolution is a distinction thatdraws on and is somewhat analogous to Schaller's (1975) distinction between"language of the Balkans" (a purely geographic designation that takes in anylanguage that occurs within the geographic bounds of the Balkans) and "Balkanlanguage" (a designation for those languages of the Balkans that participate inthe Balkan Sprachbund and show parallels due to language contact). Using thatdichotomy as a basis, one can distinguish between working on the "comparativesyntax of the Balkan languages," that is, examining the syntax of individuallanguages of the Balkans in comparison with other languages of the Balkans andelsewhere, and doing "comparative Balkan syntax," that is, examining the syntaxof Balkan languages keeping the Sprachbund in mind. Even more generally, onecan further distinguish "linguistics of the Balkans" from "Balkan linguistics,"the former being the analysis of the languages in and of themselves, the latterbeing the analysis with regard to Sprachbund.The recognition of such a distinction means that the different aims of comparativesyntax can be clarified. Just as the distinction between "language of theBalkans" and "Balkan language" is a useful one, so too are the ones proposedhere for comparative syntax and for studying the languages in the Balkans moregenerally. The goals of each enterprise are different, and thus success is measuredin different ways.With all this now in place, a discussion of some facts concerning negationin the Balkans can be examined as case studies where both types of perspectivescan fruitfully be taken.4. Two case studies in Balkan negation4.1. M-negatorsThe first area of interest starts with the formal parallels evident in one of thenegation markers in both Greek and Albanian, as well as in most non-Vlaxdialects of Romany (the language of the Gypsies) spoken in the Balkans. In eachof these languages, a negator beginning with [m] is found for nonindicativenegation, as well as some other functions discussed later on; the forms inquestion are Modern Greek mi(n) (Ancient Greek [m£] ), Albanian mos,and Romany ma.