LINGUIST List 4.1014

Tue 30 Nov 1993

Sum: Diasystem

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1. , diasystem: summary of replies

last week i requested information about the use of the term "diasystem".
thanks to the following people for their replies:

Julie Auger, Arkady Borkovsky, Magnar Brekke, Dave Britain, Andrew
Carstairs-McCarthy, Leo Connolly, Geert Craps, Helge Dyvik, Geoff Nathan, Bert
Peeters, Mel Resnick, Carlos Ruiz, Steve Seegmiller, Larry Selinker, Tom
Shannon, Larry Trask, Margaret Winters.

two or three people requested that i post a summary. here it goes.

----

most people and sources, including the OED, agree that the term originated in
weinreich's _word_ 1954 article (p. 390) (see references below):

 "a system of a higher level out of the discrete and homogeneous
 systems that are derived from description and that represent each a
 unique formal organization of the substance of expression and content"

the term became run-of-the-mill in structural dialectology (it was apparently
used in kurath's US dialect project) and is alive and kicking within that
framework. it was imported to sociolinguistics by at least p. trudgill. also,
the idea was basic to contrastive linguistics in the 1960s.

apparently, the term is used in different ways by different authors. i'll
leave it to whoever is interested to find out exactly how.

50s and 60s structural dialectology:

- U. Weinreich, Is a structural dialectology possible ? In: Word 10(1954),
 388-400.
- G.R. Cochrane, The Australian English Vowels as a Diasystem. In: Word
 15(1959), 69-88.
- E. Stankiewiz, On Discreteness and Continuity in Structural Dialectology.
 In: Word 13(1957), 44-59.
- W.G. Moulton, The Short Vowel Systems of Northern Switzerland: a study in
 structural dialectology. In: Word 16(1960), 155-182.
- P. Ivi'c Importance des charact'eristiques structurales pour la description
 et la classification des dialectes. In: Orbis 12(1963), 117-131.
- E. Pulgram, "Proto-languages as proto-diasystems: Proto-Romance" in Word
 20:373-383 (1964).
- E. Pulgram, Structural Comparison, Diasystems, and Dialectology. In:
 Linguistics 4(1964), 66-82.
- G. Francescato, Structural Comparison, Diasystems and Dialectology. In:
 Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie 81(1965), 484-49.

other references:

- Andres Villena, Juan, 1988-89. Perspectivas y limites de la investigacion
 sociolinguistica contemporanea (reflexiones programaticas a proposito del
 proyecto de investigacion del sistema de variedades vernaculas malaguenas).
 _Estudios de Linguistica_ 5, 237-274.
- Chambers, J.K. & P. Trudgill (1980) _Dialectology_. Cambridge: CUP. [p.
 40-41]
- Coseriu, E. 1973. _Sincronia, diacronia e historia_. Madrid: Gredos. [uses
 the term "archisistema"]
- Douaud, Patrick C. 1985. Notes toward a holistic model of multilingual
 competence. National U of Ireland, University Coll, Dublin. Communication &
 Cognition. Vol 18(4) 393-398. [" ...configurational sets of a particular
 culture. The option of multilingualism is accounted for by a *diasystem*
 through which the speaker derives his/her codes from a master lexicon. ..."]
- Dressler, Wolfgang U.; Moosmullerova, S. 1986. Standard, Substandard, and
 Diasystem of the National Language in Austria. Standard, substandard a
 diasystem narodneho jazyka v rakusku. CONTRIBUTOR(S): Horecky, J.
 Jazykovedny casopis, 37, 2, 166-171.
- Faerch, Claus, 1979. Describing Interlanguage through Interaction: Problems
 of Systematicity and Permeability. Working Papers on Bilingualism, No. 19.
 Ontario Inst. for Studies in Education, Toronto. Bilingual Education
 Project. (Available from: Bilingual Education Project, OISE, Toronto)
- Goossens, Jan. 1977. _Deutsche Dialektologie_. Berlin: de Gruyter.
- Goossens, Jan. 1968. "Wat zijn Nederlandse Dialecten?". _Voordrachten
 gehouden voor de Gelderse Leergangen te Arnhem_ 22.
- Hinskens, Frans. 1985-86. Some Thoughts on the Notion of Structural Distance.
 Enkele gedachten over de notie 'Structurele afstand'. Mededelingen van de
 Nijmeegse Centrale voor Dialect- en Naamkunde, 20, 89-100.
- Kubczak, Hartmut, 1989. On the Relationship between "Langue" and "Idiolect".
 Zum Verhaltnis von 'Langue' und 'Idiolekt'. Zeitschrift fu romanische
 Philologie, 105, 1-2, 1-27.
- Lopez Garcia, Angel. 1985-1986. Una vision integrada del diasistema
 fonologico catalan. Estudios de Linguistica, 3, 129-147.
- Parks, Roger, 1990. The Historical-Comparative Classification of Colombian
 Inga (Quechua). Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics; v15 n2 p73-99.
- Peeters, Bert. 1985. Paper in "Handelingen van de Koninklijke Zuidneder-
 landse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis" 39.
- Petyt, K.M. 1980. _The study of dialect_. London: Andre Deutsch. [chapter 5]
- Resnick, Mel. 1989. "Structuralist theory and the study of pronunciation in
 American Spanish dialectology". In _American Spanish pronunciation:
 theoretical and practical perspectives_, 9-30. Washington, DC: Georgetown
 Univ Press. [applied to spanish]
- Selinker, Larry. 1992. _Rediscovering interlanguage_. London: Longman. [p.
 83-9]