16. Historical linguistics

Historical Linguistics Course script 2005/6 Prof. Holger Diessel Review of phonology Classification of consonants Consonants are classified along three dimensions: 1. Voicing 2. Manner of articulation: degree of constriction in the oral cavity 3. Place of articulation: constriction in the front or back of oral cavity Voiced and unvoiced speech sounds [f] ‘father’ [v] ‘vase’ [s] ‘salt’ [z] ‘zoo’ [t] ‘tree’ [d] ‘door’ Manner of articulation Plosives Fricatives Affricates Nasals Liquids Glides Place of articulation Bilabial: Labiodentel: Interdental: Alveolar: Palatal-alveolar: Velar: Uvular: Pharyngeal: Glottal [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] [f] [v] [Q] [D] [s] [z] [S] [Z] [tS] [dZ] [m] [n] [Î] [l] [r] [w] [y] [p] [b] [m] [w] [f] [v] [T] [D] [t] [d] [s] [z] [n] [l] [r] [S] [Z] [tS] [dZ] [y] [k] [g] [Î] [?] 1 [c] [J] [q] [G] [å] [x] [ts] [pf] [î] [R] [c] [x] [q] [É] [J] [î] [å] [G] [¿] bilab. Stops labiod. interdent p b alveaolar alv-palatal t d palatal velar k g Affric. tS dZ f v Fricativ. Nasal T D s z m S Z Î n Liquid l/r Glide (w) y (w) Classification of vowels Vowels are classified along four dimensions: 1. Height of the tongue 2. Advancement of the tongue 3. Lip rounding 4. Tenseness high – mid - low front – central – back rounded - unrounded tense - lax English vowels i u I U @ e E o ö { O A English diphthongs i u i o a a 2 German vowels i y I u Y e U ï E @ o û O a Phonemes and allophones Phonology is concerned with the mental dimension of the production and recognition of speech sounds. The mental representation of a speech sound is called a phoneme. Native speakers are aware of the phonemes of their language, but they usually do not recognize the different physical instantiations of a phoneme. Many phonemes are differently pronounced in different phonetic environments; aspirated and non-aspirated stops: [thop] [stop] ‘top’ ‘stop’ aspirated plain The concrete pronunciation of a phoneme is called a phone or allophone. The derivation of allophones from phonemes can be expressed in a phonological rule: [ph th kh] / #__, __V' [p, t, k] elsewhere /p t k/  Contrastive – complementary distribution English [læk] [ræk] [lif] [rif] Korean ‘lack’ ‘rack’ ‘leaf’ ‘reef’ [param] [irím] [pal] [mal] ‘wind’ ‘name’ ‘foot’ ‘horse’ In English, [l] and [r] are in contrastive distribution, but in Korean, [l] and [r] are in complementary distribution, i.e. they are allophones of the same phoneme. /l/  [r] / V__V [l] elsewhere /r/  [l] / __# [r] / elsewhere 3 Phonological processes of English Aspiration [thop] [stop] p t k/  Nasalization [kæ̃n] [kãm] ‘top’ ‘stop’ [ph th kh] / #__, __V [p, t, k] elsewhere ‘can’ ‘come’ /V/  [Ṽ] / __N [V] elsewhere Vowel lengthening [bE:d] ‘bed’ [h{:v] ‘have’ /V/  [V:] /__ [+voice] [V] elsewhere Flapping (American English) [böQr] ‘butter’ [bEQr] ‘better’ /t/  [Q] / (after stressed syllables at the beginning of unstressed syllables) [t] elsewhere Morphophonemic processes The allophonic process that we have seen thus far must be distinguished from morphophonemic processes. Allophonic processes involve the derivation of allophones from phonemes; the process is obligatory and automatic. Morphophonemic processes occur when two morphemes are combined into a complex word. Such processes are also obligatory and automatic, but they do not involve allophones but rather ‘basic’ speech sounds (i.e. phonemes); thus native speakers easily perceive such processes when they are pointed out to them. 4 English plural [k{ts] [dOgz] [bUS@z] [karz] [lajts] [b{Îks] [kis@z] [dZ@r{fs] [garaZ@z] [m{t@z] [dETs] Three allomorphs: ‘cats’ ‘dogs’ ‘bushes’ ‘cars’ ‘lights’ ‘banks’ ‘kisses’ ‘giraffes’ ‘garages’ ‘matches’ ‘deaths’ [s] after voiceless speech sound [z] after voiced speech sounds [@z] after sibilants Place harmony in the negative prefix: [impOsIbl] [insEns@tIv] [iÎkOnsIst@nt] There allomorphs: ‘impossible’ ‘insensitive’ ‘inconsistent’ [m] before labials [n] before alveolars [Î] before velar 5 The Indo-European Language Family Germanic Germanic West Germanic Low German English Dutch Frisian Afrikaans North Germanic High German Swedish Danish Norwegian Icelandic East Germanic Gothic Vandal Burgundian German Yiddish Table 1. Systematic sound correspondences between English and German English German Zeit time Zunge tongue Zehn ten Zahm tame Zelt tent Zu to Zwei two Zwölf twelve Zwillinge twins The second German sound shift time tongue ten Zeit Zunge zehn that there through das da durch 6 pan path pole Pfanne Pfad Pfahl hate eat let hassen essen lassen grip deep sleep greifen tief schafen Romance French Italian Spain Portuguese Romanian Catalan Galician Sardinian Provencal Rhaeto-Romance Table 2. Systematic sound correspondences in the Romance languages Sardinian Italian Romansh French Hundred kEntu tSEnto tsjEnt sã Sky kElu tSelo tsil sjEl Stag kErbu tSErvo tsErf sER Wax kEra tSera tsaira siR Indo-European Germanic Romance Slavic Baltic Celtic Greek Iranian Indian Albanian Armenian 7 Spanish Tjen Tjelo Tjerbo Tera Slavic Baltic Slavic Latvian Lithuanian Old Prussian East Slavic West Slavic Russian Ukrainian Belarusian Polish Czech Slovak Sorbian South Slavic Serbo-Croatian Slovene Bulgarian Macedonian Celtic Irish Scottish Gaelic Speakers today: Welsh Manx Welsh (Wales): 250.000 Irish (Irland): 500.000 Gaellic (Scottland): 75.000 Manx (Ilse of man): extinct Cornish (Cornwell): extinct Breton (Brittany): 500.000 8 Cornish Breton The comparative method Languages for which we have long and comprehensive historical records Indo-European Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic, Egytian) Chinese Japanese Turkish Native American languages African languages Dravidian Sound structure of a dead language 1. Rhyme You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedge-hogs, be not seen; Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong; Come not near our fairy queen. (Shakespeare) 2. Spelling mistakes consul ‘cosul’ censor ‘cesor’ (Latin inscriptions) 3. Phonetic descriptions of ancient scholars ‘We produce this letter by pressing the lower lip on the upper teeth. The tongue is turned back towards the roof of the mouth, and the sound is accompanied by a gentle puff of breath.’ (Roman grammarian) 9 Comparative evidence Table 1. Numerals in Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages English Gothic Latin Greek Old Ch. Sanskrit Chinese Slavic one ains heis jedinu ekas i unus two twai duo duva dva erh duo threeT Trija treisT trijeT trayasT sanT tresT four quattuor tettares cetyre catvaras ssu fidwor five quinque pente peti panca wu fimf six sex heks secti sat liu saihs seven septem hepta sedmi sapta ch’i sibun eight octo okto osmi asta pa ahtau nine novembe ennea deveti nava chiu niun ten decem deka deseti dasa shih taihun Table 2. Proto-Indo-European numerals Proto-Indo-European *sems, *oi*duwo / *dwo *treyes *kwetwores *penkwe *sweks / *seks *septam *októ *newan *dekamt English one two three four five six seven eight nine ten Table 3. Systematic sound correspondences in the Indo-European languages English Latin Greek Irish piscis ikhthys iasg fish pater athair father pater ped– pod– troigh foot for pro para do six seven sweet salt sex septem suavis sal hexa hepta hedys hal se seacht millis salann new night nine novus noct– novem neos nykt– (en)nea nua (in)nocht naoi 10 Japanese hitotsu futatsu mittsuT yottsu itsutsu muttsu nanatsu yattsu kokonotsu to Table 4. Sound correspondences across unrelated languages Arabic Urdu Turkish xabar xabar haber news waqt vaqt vakit time kitab kitab kitap book xidmat xidmatgari hizmet service faqir faqir fakir beggar Swahili habari wkati kitabu huduma fakiri Grimm’s law /p/  /f/ Latin pedum piscis Sanskrit padam –– Old English fot fisc Gothic fotus fiskis /t/  /T/ Latin tres tu Sanskrit trayas tuvam Old English three [Tri] thou [DaU] Gothic thrir thuU /k/  /x/ (/x/ = /h/) Latin Sanskrit cordem craidd centum cant Old English heart hundred Gothic hairto hund /d/  /t/ Latin edo decem Sanskrit admi daca Old English eat ten Gothic itan taihun /g/  /h/ Latin ager genus Sanskrit –– –– Old English acre kin Gothic akrs kuni 11 Malay khabar waktu kitab khidmat fakir Table 4. Grimm’s law Indo-European [bh] [dh] [gh] [b] [d] [g] [p] [t] [k] became [bhero:] ‘I carry’ [dedhe:i] ‘I place’ [ghans] ‘goose’ No sure examples [dekm] ‘ten’ [genos] ‘tribe’ [pater] ‘father’ [treyes] ‘three’ [kornu] ‘horn’ Grimm’s Law *p t k  *b d g  *bh dh gh  English [b] [d] [g] [p] [t] [k] [f] [T] [h] ‘bear’ ‘do’ ‘goose’ ‘ten’ ‘kin’ ‘father’ ‘three’ ‘horn’ f T x/h ptk bdg Verner’s law [p t k] [f T x] Sanskrit vártate varárta vavrtimá vavrta:ná [b d g] Old English weorTan wearT wurdon worden The Neogrammrian Hypothesis Every sound change takes place according to laws that admit no exceptions. [Brugmann] 12 Internal reconstruction [D] father mother feather heather weather bother [T] think thief thick thin thigh thank 13 Lexical and semantic change I. Loan words Computer (originally ‘compute’ is from Romance) Desktop Mouse Server Bytes Keyboard Disk Ram Email Loan words from Scandinavian (800-1050) law leg neck bag cake egg fellow dirt anger knife skin give sister [sweaster] take Loan words from Latin (throughout its history) GERM OE ME wall noon history street rule gesture onion cap infancy church pear individual Borrowings from French (1100-1400) action adventure age air bucket person carpenter powder coast river cost country clear usual advice approach enjoy prefer 14 EME occurrence expectation insane frequency Borrowings from other languages moose (Native American) tobacco (Native American) canoe (Native American) curry (East Asia) jungle (East Asia) mango (East Asia) kangaroo (Australia) banana (Africa) chimpanzee (Africa) zebra (Africa) canyon (Spanish) taco (Spanish) angst (German) kindergarten (German) Loan translations Greek: Latin: German sym-pathia com-passion Mit-leid ‘with-suffering’ ‘with-suffering’ ‘with-suffering’ original loan translation loan translation Intensive borrowing can influence the phonological system [v] and [f] very victory vine few fat rifle strife voice value vinegar vs. vs. vs. vs. virgin vowel view vat rival strive [Z] measure pleasure treasur leisure azure Phonotactics shrink shred shrimp 15 schmuck shlep schnoz spiel shtick Yiddish schnapps schnauzer schnitzel schmaltz German The morphological treatment of loan words phenomenon criterion datum hypothesis phenomena criteria data hypotheses Grammatical borrowing reiterate repeate reunion resign resist restrict Ballan Sprachbund 1. Rumanian Bulgarian Albanian om-ul kniega-ta mik-u 2. English I saw Peter leave. I want Peter to leave. 3. Future ‘man-the’ ‘book-the’ ‘friend-the’ Balkan languages I saw that Peter left. I want that Peter is leaving. 16 The cross-linguistic distribution of grammatical features Order of Adjective-Noun Preposition – Postposition 17 Prefixing-Suffixing Tone 18 Tea (lexical) II. Word formation processes  Compounding girlfriend ice cream lipstick soundproof jetlag close-up  Affixation pre–, re–, anti–, non–, ex–, over– –ness, –ful, –ity, –al, –ize, –er  zero derivation to bridge to sandwich  clipping telephone gymnasium influenza > > > phone gym flu  blending motel smog chunnel > > > motor + hotel smoke + fog channel + tunnel 19  Acronyms Acquired immune deficiency syndrome North Atlantic Treaty Organization Radio detecting and ranging Strategic Arms Limitation Talks For your information  Eponyms Sandwich Hamburger Pentium Kodak Xerox  New inventions blurb nylon chirrup blatant pentium III. Semantic change Metaphor to terminate to take care of to eliminate to dispose of ‘to kill’ ‘to kill’ ‘to kill’ ‘to kill’ blasted ripped smashed wasted ‘drunk’ ‘drunk’ ‘drunk’ ‘drunk’ Metonymy tea head give me a hand ‘evening meal’ ‘leader’ ‘help me’ 20 > > > > > AIDS NATO radar SALT FYI Widening dog salary arrive Original meaning: specific type of dog From Latin ‘salarium’, i.e soldiers’ allotment of salt; then it came to mean solders’ wages in general; finally pay for all kinds of work originally it meant ‘come to shore’, ‘arrive by ship’ Narrowing meat wife deer fowl starve Originally: food including non-meaty food Originally: woman Originally: animal Originally: bird Originally: to die Degeneration spinster mistress peasant Originally: older unmarried woman (who spins) Originally: woman who has control over household Originally: small farmer Elevation knight Originally: mounted warrior serving a king Traugott: From concrete to abstract  ‘felan’ (meaning ‘touch’) > ‘feel’ ME (psychological, emotional) ‘realize’ (make real) > (understand) ‘see’ (visual) > (understand) ‘hot’ (temperature’) > (sexually attractive, interesting, super) ‘shit’ (physical) > (expressions of anger)  ‘while’ (Da hwile De ‘at the time that’) ‘but’ (on the outside) ‘well’ (adverb of ‘good’) ‘this/that’ (demonstrative) ‘there’ (demonstrative)  deontic modals (She must go) > > > > > temporal conjunction adversative conjunction discourse marker complementizer existential marker > epistemic modals (This must be it) 21 Phonological change: Types of sound change 1. sporadic change –– regular change (i) Examples of sporadic change spræc ‘language/speech’ grammar > speech > glamour (ii) Examples of regular change Grimm’s law: [p t k] > [f T h] 2. conditioned change –– unconditioned change (i) Examples of unconditioned change [fif] [wif] > > [faif] [waif] ‘five’ ‘wife’ (ii) Examples of conditioned change [bed] > [be:d] 3. phonemic change –– allophonic change (i) Examples of allophonic change All of the changes we have seen so far were examples of non-phonemic change. (ii) Examples of phonemic change *o *@ *a PIE Latin Gothic OHG PDE *okto*p@ter*agro- octo pater ager ahtau fadar akrs ahto fater ackar ‘eight’ ‘father’ ‘acre’ 22 (1) [k] > [tS] cat katt katt katt Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 chaff keaff tSeaf tSaff chin kinn tSinn tSinn (2) Umlaut Original SG Mouse /mu:s/ [mu:s] PL Mice /mu:s-i/ [mu:s-i] /mu:s-i/ [my:s-i] /mu:s/ [mu:s] /mi:s/ [mi:s] /mais/ [mais] (3) [s] > [r] in Latin [s] [s] [s] [r] [z] [r] [r] 23 SG Foot /fo:t/ [fo:t] PL Feet /fo:t-i/ [fo:t-i] /fo:t-i/ [fï:t-i] /fï:t/ [fï:t] /fe:t/ [fe:t] /fi:t/ [fi:t] What motivates sound change? Assimilation (1) Latin nocte [nokte] (2) English cheese child chin church German Käse Kind Kinn cyrice (Old English) (3) nature education tissue [ty] > [tS] [dy] > [dZ] [sy] > [S] (4) (5) (6) Italian notte [notte] pain [pẼ] fin [fẼ] ‘bread’ ‘end’ English *[mus] *[mys-i] Latin *[peÎkwe] ‘mouse’ SG ‘mice’ PL > *[kweÎkwe] Lenition stop stop oral stop voiceless geminate > > > > > fricative liquid glottal stop voiced simplex  Spirantization Latin habebat ‘he had’ faba ‘bean’ > >  Stop > liquid English [wOtr] > > approximate Italian aveva fava American English [wOQr] 24  Oral stop > glottal stop English [wOtr]  Voicing Latin strata lacu  Degemination Latin cuppa ‘cup‘ gutta ‘drop’ siccu ‘dry’ London, Glasgow [wO?r] > > Italian strada lago > > > Spanish copa ‘wine glass’ gota ‘drop’ seco ‘dry’  The minimal consonant: [h] Old English hnuti ‘nut’ hit ‘it’ where [hw]ere English nut it where [w]ere > > > Deletions (1) (2) French lit gros murs ‘bed’ ‘big’ ‘walls’ English (syncope) chocolate camera police correct English knee knot knife medicine battery dictionary Additions (1) [sömpTIÎ] [drEmpt] [tSömpski] ‘something’ ‘dreamt’ ‘Chomsky’ (2) [f{ntsi] [prints] ‘fancy’ ‘prince’ 25 (3) [{T@lIt] ‘athlete’ (4) Spanish Esnobe eslalom estricnina ‘snob’ ‘slalom’ ‘estrychnine’ Latin spatha statu scala Spanish espada ‘sword’ estado ‘state’ escala ‘ladder’ Other types of sound change Metathesis Old English w{ps bridd frist thridde ask /aks > > > > > Modern English wasp bird first third ask Compensatory lengthening Pre-Old English *[finf] *[gans] > Middle English [fi:f] 26 > > Modern English [faif] [gu:s] Phonological change: The drive for symmetry English plosives Labial p b m Voiceless plosive Voiced plosive Nasal English fricatives Labiodent. Voiceless f Voiceless v Alveolar t d n Interdental T D Alveolar s z Italian [i] [u] [U] [I] [e] [iE] [o] [E] [O] [uO] [a] 27 Velar k g Î Palatal S Z Velar h Sardinian [i] [u] [U] [I] [e] [o] [E] [O] [a] The Great English Vowel Shift Old English Modern English [bru:n] [de:man] [do:m] [du:n] [{:l] [{:fen] [la:t@] [fi:f] [he:] [ra:d] [h:{:T] [na:m@] [hu:s] [i:s] [l{:ce] [mu:T] [mi:n] ‘brown’ ‘deem’ ‘doom’ ‘down’ ‘eel’ ‘even(ing) ‘late’ ‘five’ ‘he’ ‘rode’ ‘heath’ ‘name’ ‘house’ ‘ice’ ‘leech’ ‘mouth’ ‘my’ u: > aU e: > i o: > u u: > aU {: > i {: > i a: > e i: > aI e: > i a: > o {: > i a: > e u: > aU i: > ai {: > i u: > aU i: > aI 28 ‘oak’ ‘roost’ ‘made’ ‘home’ ‘sooth’ ‘stone’ ‘teeth’ ‘time’ / ‘tide‘ ‘tooth’ ‘white’ [a:c] [ro:st] [mad@] [ha:m] [so:T] [sta:n] [te:T] [ti:d] [to:T] [hwi:t] Middle English i: e: E: a: u: o: O: Chaucer [fi:f] [me:de] [klE:ne] [na:ma] [du:n] [ro:t@] [gO:t@] Shakespeare [faIv] [mi:d] [kle:n] [ne:m] [daÜn] [ru:t] [go:t] a: > o o: > u a: > e a: > o o: > u a: > o e: > i i: > aI o: > u i: > aI Modern spelling five mid clean name down root goat Competing motivations “The maintenance or restoration of symmetry appears to be a powerful force in sound change, and chain shifts in particular can be more readily understood in terms of movement within phonological space. A crucial observation has been that there are always competing phonological pressures, both syntagmatic and paradigmatic; these can never all be satisfied at once, and a great deal of phonological change can be understood as endless attempts at satisfying these competing pressures, with each resulting change typically introducing new strains into the system.” [Trask 1996: 95-96] 29 Morphological change Today’s morphology is yesterday’s syntax (1) -ly -hood N meaning ‘body’ (‘mann-lic’) N meaning ‘person’, ‘sex’, ‘quality’ (2) English past tense –ed V ‘did’ (3) Spanish future Latin cantare habeo cantare habes cantare habet cantare habermus cantare habetis cantare habent (4) Basque Verb noa noa doa goaz zoas doaz (5) Spanish cantaré cantarás cantará cantaremos cantareís cantarán Gloss ‘I’ll sing’ ‘you’ll sing’ ‘he’ll sing’ ‘we’ll sing’ ‘you’ll sing’ ‘they’ll sing’ Pronoun ni hi gu zu - ‘I’m going’ ‘you are going’ ‘he/she is going’ ‘we are going’ ‘you are going’ ‘they are going’ ‘I’ ‘you’ ‘he/she’ ‘we’ ‘you’ ‘they’ French a. Jean donnera le livre à Marie. b. Il te le donnera. ‘John will give the book to Mary.’ ‘He you-it-will give’ >>> Jean, il-te-le-donnera, le livere. Analogy Four-part analogy A : B C : X 30 Four-part analogy 1: English plural nouns (1) X ziff zo zax X-s ziff-[s] zo-[z] zax-[@z] (2) X-us cact-us radi-us X-i cact-i radi-i Four-part analogy 2: English verb forms (1) Old English climb clomb step stope laugh low Modern English climb climbed step stepped laugh laughed (2) Present V V (3) throw–threw–thrown strive–strove–striven dream–dreamt––dreamt hang–hung–hung light–lit–lit cleave–clove–cloven throw–throwed–throwed strive–stroved–stroved dream–dreamed–dreamed hang–hanged–hanged light–lighted–lighted cleave–cleaved–cleaved (3) Original dive catch New dive catch Past V-ed X-ed dived catched Four-part analogy 3: derivational forms (1) sea moon seascape moonscape (2) journal mother American journalese motherese Americanese 31 dove caught Sturtevant’s paradox Sound change is regular, but produces irregularity; analogy is irregular, but produces regularity. Table 1. Analogical leveling in French Latin Old French 1SG 2SG 3SG 1PL 2PL 3PL ámo ámas ámat amámus anátis ámant Modern French aime aimes aime aimons aimez aiment aim aimes aimet amons amez aiment Present Past SG Past PL Past PTC Old English ce:osan [z] ce:as [s] curon [r] gecoren [r] Modern English choose [z] chose [z] chose [z] chosen [z] Present Past SG Past PL Past PTC Old High German kiusan [z] ko:s [s] kurun [r] gikoran [r] Modern German küren [r] kor [r] kor [r] gekoren [r] Special types of analogy 1. Structural reanalysis (1) a naddre (type of snake) a napron an adder [{d@r] an apron (2) an ewt an ekename a newt [n(y)ut] a nickname 32 2. Contamination (1) male male : : femelle fe-male (2) Stage 1 : French borrowing English ouvert [Uv@r] covered [kAv@rt] Sound change Stage 2: (3) Reanalysis overt [Ov@rt] regard : regardless covert [kOv@rt] = irrespective irregardless 3. Hypercorrection (1) [dark] [kOrt] ‘dark’ ‘court’ (2) [avOkardo] ‘avocado’ (3) a. Peter and me went swimming. b. Sally talked to Peter and me. > > 4. Backformation (1) hamburger cheese > > ham + burger cheese + burger 33 Peter and I went swimming. *Sally talked to Peter and I. (2) OE PDE SG [pe:z] PL pisan pea peas Established pattern to exhibit – exhibit-or printer – to print maintenance – to maintain book – book-s >> >> >> >> Back formation editor laser surveillance cerise (Sg) > > > > to edit to lase to surveille cherry Change in morphological type Isolating language (1) Vietnamese Khi tôi dén nhà ban tôi bát dàu làm bài When I come house friend I, PL I begin do.lesson ‘When I arrived at my friend’s house, we began to do lessons.’ Agglutinating language (2) Turkish Yap-tIg& -Im hata-yI memleket-i tanI-ma-ma-m-a Make-PART-my mistake-OBJ country-OBJ know-not-GER-my-to ver-ebil-ir-siniz. Give-can-TENSE-you ‘You can ascribe the mistake I made to my not knowing the country.’ Inflectional language (3) Latin Arm-a vir-um-que can-o Weapon-NEUT.PL.OBJ man-MASC.SG.OBJ-and sing-1SG.Pres.Indic.Act ‘Arms and the man I sing.’ 34 Isolating X Y Z Inflectional X-y/z Agglutinating X-y-z Figure 1. Language ‘drift’ (Sapir) 35 Syntactic change Syntactic change Structural reanalysis Grammaticalization The development of the perfect (1) Ic hæbbe [thone fisc gefangene]. I have the fish caught.ACC ‘I have the fish caught’ (=I have the fish in a state of being caught) (2) Ic hæfde [hine gebundenne]. I had him bound.ACC ‘I had him bound’ (=I had him in a state of being bound) (3) Ic hæfde hitgebunden I had it bound.Ø ‘I had it bound’ (= I had it in my possession) (4) thin geleafa hæfth the your faith has you ‘Your faith has healed you.’ (5) Ac hie hæfdon tha … hiora but they had then … their ‘But they had then used up their food.’ gehæled healed mete food genotudne used-up The development of psych verbs in English (1) *Peran Peras licoden were-pleasing than the-DAT (2) than cynge licoden peran. The-DAT king-DAT were-pleasing pears ‘Pears were pleasing to the king’ (i.e. The king liked pears) 36 cynge. king-DAT SVO OVS (3) The king liceden peares the king were-pleased pears ‘Pears were pleasing to the king’ (i.e. The king liked pears) (4) The king liked pears. (5) He liked them. The development of the Germanic complementizers (1) (2) (3) (4) I belive that she will take the job. Ich verstehe, dass Sie nicht kommen. Ik weet dat hij veel vrienden heeft. Jag trodde, att hans sista stund var kommen. (5) Middle High German joh gizalta in sâr thaZ, thiu sâlida untar in uuas and told them immediately that the luck among them was ‘And he told them immediately that good fortune was among them.’ (6) D{t gefremede Diulius hiora consul, D{t that arranged Diulius their consul COMP wearD tidlice Durthogen was in.time achieved ‘Their consul Diulius arranged (it) that it was started on time.’ (7) I’m like ‘What’s going on?’ 37 English German Dutch Swedish D{t that angin beginning Typological harmony VO and OV languages [Dryer 2005] Correlation between verb-object & noun-adposition 38 Table 1. Word order correlates in VO and OV languages VO languages OV languages VO OV P NP NP P AUX V V AUX N GEN GEN N COMP S S COMP N REL REL N V COMP-clause COMP-clause V case-marking absent case-marking The dummy auxiliary ‘do’ (1) Ædred me ah; Eanred mec Ædred me oens Eanred me ‘Ædred owns me; Eanard carved me.’ (2) b. Opened you the door? a. Did you open the door? 39 agrof carved Grammaticalization Introduction Exercise: Identify the grammatical morphemes and determine their historical source. Language change is a topic that spreads itself over a wide range of areas. Therefore a good historical linguist should have a solid background in all subfields of linguistics. Indeed, most historical linguists began as general linguists before they turned to the study of language change. Traditionally, historical linguistics was primarily concerned with phonological and morphological change. However, in recent years the focus has shifted onto syntax and the development of grammar. Grammaticalization has become a central topic for anybody who is interested in language change because it challenges central assumptions of linguistic theory. Nevertheless, given that grammaticalization involves phonological and morphological change, it also revived the interest in the study of traditional topics in historical linguistics. Example 1: gonna (1) I am going to marry Bill. [meaning: I am leaving in order to marry Bill. (2) ??I am sure you are going to like Bill. (3) I [am going [to marry [Bill]]]. >>> I [[[am [going to]] marry] [Bill]] (4) be going to > to gonna. Example 2: lets (1) a. Let yourself down on the rope. b. Let Bill go. (2) a. b. Let’s go to the circus tonight. Let’s watch a movie. (3) Lets give you a hand. (‘I’ll give you a hand’) (4) Lets you and I take’em on for a set. (5) Lets you go first, then if we have any money left I’ll go. (6) Lets wash your hand. 40 Examples of grammaticalization Source construction Target construction ‘go’ [motion verb] > gonna [auxiliary] ‘will’ [verb of intention] > will [auxiliary] ‘have’ [verb of possession] > have [auxiliary] noun meaning ‘with an x-appearance’ > x–ly noun meaning > x-hood auxiliary ‘do’ > x–ed DEM hwile SUB (hwile = ‘time’) > while [conjunction] ‘by cause’ preposition+noun > because[conjunction] ‘given’ [past participle of ‘go’] > given [conjunction] ‘during’ [verb in continuous form] > during [preposition] ‘in front of’ [PP] > in front of [preposition] ‘a-gone’ [PREFIX-verb] > ago [postposition] ‘be-foran’ [be– prefix meaning ‘by’, > before [preposition] ‘some body’ [NP] > somebody [indefinite pro] ‘one’ [numeral] > one [article/pronoun] ‘(do you) you know’ [question] > y’know ‘I think’ [matrix clause] > (I) think ‘guess’ [imperative matrix clause] > guess + foran ‘ADV’ meaning ‘in front’] 41 The grammaticalization of demonstratives All grammatical morphemes have developed out of lexical morphemes, principally nouns and verbs… [Bybee 2003] Definite article the der/die/das Third person pronouns he / it er / sie / es Relative pronouns that der/die/das Complementizers that dass Sentence connectives/conjunctions thus / therefore deshalb / dadurch Directional preverbs hin-gehen her-kommen Copulas NP, [DEM NP] Der Mann, der (ist) ein Polizist. lexical expressions > > NP be NP Der Mann ist ein Polizist. demonstratives grammatical markers new grammatical markers 42 Frequency, habituation, and storage The reduction effect 1.Phonetic reduction going to I will I am do not > > > > gonna I’ll I’m don’t 2.Loss of constituent structure want to > [in [front [of__]]] > some DET body N > wanna [in front of [ __ ]] [somebody] PRO 3.Semantic bleaching to [from directional preposition to INF marker] going [from motion verb to future tense marker] -ly [from noun meaning ‘body’ to ADV marker] The preservation effect 1. Regularization of irregular verbs wept > weeped (low token frequency) keep > kept(high token frequency) 2. Suppletion go – went be – am – are – is good – better bad – worse 3. Case marking SUBJ OBJ he him she her Psychological mechanism SUBJ car tree OBJ car tree Reduction Effect Ritualization (processing effect) 43 Conserving effect Entrenchment (storage effect) Variation as the vehicle of language change The linguistic system Table 1. Person-number inflection in German SINGULAR ich  person du  person er/sie/es  person PLURAL wir  person ihr  person sie  person i u I U e @ o E O { A Figure 1. The English vowel system Saussurean paradox If language is primarily a system of relations, how is it that a language can change without disrupting the system? 44 Labov: Martha’s Vineyard Table 1. Age and degree of centralization Age Degree of centralization [ai] 75+ 0.25 61-75 0.35 46-60 0.62 31-45 0.81 14-30 0.37 1933 [ai] [au] Degree of centralization [au] 0.23 0.37 0.44 0.88 0.46 0.86 0.06 Table 2. Degree of centralization and occupation and environment Age Degree of centralization [ai] Degree of centralization [au] Occupation Fisherman 1.00 0.79 Farmers 0.32 0.22 Environment Towns Rural areas 0.35 0.61 0.33 0.66 Table 3. Centralization and attitude to the island Age Degree of centralization [ai] Positive (40 subjects) Neutral (19 subjects) Negative (6 subjects) 0.63 0.32 0.09 45 Degree of centralization [au] 0.62 0.42 0.08 Trudgill: the –ng variable in Britain [gOIÎ] [gOIn] going goin’ Table 1. The alveolar pronunciation of the –ing suffix Word list Reading Formal speech Middle class Lower middle class Upper working class Middle working class Lower working class 0 0 5 23 29 0 10 15 44 66 3 15 74 88 98 Casual speech 28 42 87 95 100 Cheshire: Teenage talk in Reading (Aitchison 2001: 77-80) (1) (2) (3) I knows how to handle teddy boys. You knows my sister, the one who’s small. They calls me all the name under the sun. Table 5. Nonstandard verb inflection in Reading Casual speech Boys 60% Girls 49% Total 50% Formal 31% 13% 22% Labov: The pronunciation of non-prevocalic [r] in New York City Table 5. The pronunciation of [r] in non-prevocalic position in NYC Word list Reading Formal speech 41 Upper middle class 27 27 61 Lower middle class 24 19 Upper working class 25 20 15 Middle working class 23 17 14 Lower working class 18 15 7 Lower class 10 10 4 46 Casual speech 18 7 7 7 2 1 Geographical and lexical diffusion 1. Geographical diffusion (1) (2) (3) (4) hem:A hAR jA hem:A hAr jA jem:@ hAr j{ heim: @ hAr eg int@ int@ ik:@ iç:@ sO sO sO sO me:d myk:@t my:@ my:ç@ sOm sOm sOm sOm et et et et gam:AltgAusabAin gam:AltgO:sbe:n gam:AltgO:s@be:n gam:AltgO:s@bein south. Swed. central Swed. east. Norw. east. Norw. Translation: At home have I not so much as an old goose-leg Isoglosses Low German dorp dat mak@n High German dorf das max@n 2. Lexical diffusion All sound changes are mechanical processes, taking place according to laws with no exceptions. [Osthoff and Brugmann 1978] Example 1: Schwa deletion (1) ev(e)ry fam(i)ly deliv(e)ry nurs(e)ry desult(o)ry curs(o)ry Table 1. Schwa deletion and word frequency (Bybee 2001) No schwa Frequent schwa deletion Infrequent schwa deletion artillery (11) every (492) memory (91) cursory (4) family (149) salary (51) mammary (0) summary (21) (2) burgl(a)ry forg(e)ry 47 Example 2: Auxiliary contraction I’ll, you’ll he’ll, she’ll, we’ll, they’ll *Peter’ll, man’ll S-shaped development percent time u(n) brun ‘brown’ i(n) fin ‘end’ ie(n) bien ‘well’ oi(n) coin ‘corner’ o(n) bon ‘good’ e(n) en ‘in’ a(n) an ‘year’ 9th 10th 11th 12th 48 13th 14th u(n) brun ‘brown’ i(n) fin ‘end’ ie(n) bien ‘well’ oi(n) coin ‘corner’ o(n) bon ‘good’ e(n) en ‘in’ a(n) an ‘year’ 9th 10th 11th 12th 49 13th 14th The invisible hand phenomena Languages are organisms of nature; they have never been directed by the will of man; they rose, and developed themselves according to definite laws; they grew old, and died out. They, too, are subject to that series of phenomena which we embrace under the nature of ‘life’. The science of language is consequently a natural science; its method is generally altogether the same as that of any other natural science. [August Schleicher 1863] The desire of communication is a real living force, to the impelling action of which every human being, in every stage of culture, is accessible; and so far as we can see, it is the only force that was equal to initiating the process of language-making, as it is also the one that has kept up the process to the present time. It works both consciously and unconsciously, as regards the further consequences of the act. [William Dwight Whitney 1967] Phenomena of the third type natural phenomena results of human actions artefacts 50 phenomena of the third kind