The present paper investigates the reduction of gender assignment and agreement in a nineteenth-century Romani variety in contact with genderless Hungarian. This reduction took place within two generations of native speakers. We compare the geographical and sociolinguistic situation with the majority of present-day Romani varieties, which still maintain the original two-way (masculine, feminine) gender system. By comparing these varieties with the few Romani varieties which also display reduction of their gender system, we show that the development of this particular typological change may be the outcome of the minority situation of Romani and its geographical proximity to a genderless language. However, as rural varieties do not exhibit the same kind of erosion, this is not a sufficient explanation; what also appears to play a role in the Romani case is the urban context of the change. This sociolinguistic factor might also be considered in other case studies on the loss of grammatical gender.
{"title":"Gender reduction in contact","authors":"M. A. Baló, Zuzana Bodnárová","doi":"10.1075/dia.22011.bal","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22011.bal","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The present paper investigates the reduction of gender assignment and agreement in a nineteenth-century Romani\u0000 variety in contact with genderless Hungarian. This reduction took place within two generations of native speakers. We compare the\u0000 geographical and sociolinguistic situation with the majority of present-day Romani varieties, which still maintain the original\u0000 two-way (masculine, feminine) gender system. By comparing these varieties with the few Romani varieties which also display\u0000 reduction of their gender system, we show that the development of this particular typological change may be the outcome of the\u0000 minority situation of Romani and its geographical proximity to a genderless language. However, as rural varieties do not exhibit\u0000 the same kind of erosion, this is not a sufficient explanation; what also appears to play a role in the Romani case is the urban\u0000 context of the change. This sociolinguistic factor might also be considered in other case studies on the loss of grammatical\u0000 gender.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"213 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139002305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study traces the development of discrete, combinatorial structure in Zinacantec Family Homesign (‘Z Sign’), a sign language developed since the 1970s by several deaf siblings in Mexico (Haviland 2020b), focusing on the expression of motion. The results reveal that the first signer, who generated a homesign system without access to language models, represents motion events holistically. Later-born signers, who acquired this homesign system from infancy, distribute the components of motion events over sequences of discrete signs. Furthermore, later-born signers exhibit greater regularity of form-meaning mappings and increased articulatory efficiency. Importantly, these changes occur abruptly between the first- and second-born signers, rather than incrementally across signers. This study extends previous findings for Nicaraguan Sign Language (Senghas et al. 2004) to a social group of a much smaller scale, suggesting that the parallel processes of cultural transmission and language acquisition drive language emergence, regardless of community size.
本研究追溯了Zinacantec家庭手语(“Z符号”)中离散、组合结构的发展，这是一种自20世纪70年代以来由墨西哥的几个聋哑兄弟姐妹开发的手语(Haviland 2020b)，重点关注运动的表达。结果表明，第一个签名者在没有使用语言模型的情况下生成了自己的手语系统，他整体地代表了运动事件。后来出生的手语者从婴儿时期就获得了这种家庭手语系统，他们将运动事件的组成部分分布在离散的符号序列上。此外，晚出生的手语者表现出更大的形式-意义映射规律和更高的发音效率。重要的是，这些变化在第一和第二出生的手语者之间突然发生，而不是在不同的手语者之间逐渐发生。这项研究将先前对尼加拉瓜手语的研究结果(Senghas et al. 2004)扩展到一个规模小得多的社会群体，表明文化传播和语言习得的平行过程推动了语言的出现，无论社区规模如何。
{"title":"Abrupt grammatical reorganization of an emergent sign language","authors":"Austin German","doi":"10.1075/dia.22039.ger","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22039.ger","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study traces the development of discrete, combinatorial structure in Zinacantec Family Homesign (‘Z Sign’), a\u0000 sign language developed since the 1970s by several deaf siblings in Mexico (Haviland\u0000 2020b), focusing on the expression of motion. The results reveal that the first signer, who generated a homesign system\u0000 without access to language models, represents motion events holistically. Later-born signers, who acquired this homesign system\u0000 from infancy, distribute the components of motion events over sequences of discrete signs. Furthermore, later-born signers exhibit\u0000 greater regularity of form-meaning mappings and increased articulatory efficiency. Importantly, these changes occur abruptly\u0000 between the first- and second-born signers, rather than incrementally across signers. This study extends previous findings for\u0000 Nicaraguan Sign Language (Senghas et al. 2004) to a social group of a much smaller\u0000 scale, suggesting that the parallel processes of cultural transmission and language acquisition drive language emergence,\u0000 regardless of community size.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"22 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138594489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
V. Bochkarev, Anna V. Shevlyakova, V. Solovyev, E. Rakhilina, G. Paramei
We investigated diachrony of distributional semantics of two competing Russian colour terms (cts) for ‘brown’, buryj (11th century) and koričnevyj (17th century), using the Russian subcorpus of Google Books Ngram (2020). Time-series analysis (1800–2019) of bigrams gauged each term’s frequencies of occurrence and changes in combinability with nouns for natural objects, artefacts, abstract concepts and figurative expressions. In frequency, koričnevyj overtook buryj in the 1920s, confirming its basic status in modern Russian. The perplexity index indicates that koričnevyj steadily increased the range of denoted objects, with artefacts being front runners in the buryj-to-koričnevyj transition. The results corroborate Rakhilina’s (2007a, 2007b, 2008) hypothesis that an incipient ct initially collocates with nouns denoting artefacts but gradually expands to the realm of natural objects supplanting an old ct. Moreover, koričnevyj and buryj are discerned by denotations and connotations. The present findings provide insights into general mechanisms of the linguistic evolution of an emergent basic ct.
{"title":"Linguistic mechanisms of colour term evolution","authors":"V. Bochkarev, Anna V. Shevlyakova, V. Solovyev, E. Rakhilina, G. Paramei","doi":"10.1075/dia.22013.boc","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22013.boc","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We investigated diachrony of distributional semantics of two competing Russian colour terms (cts) for\u0000 ‘brown’, buryj (11th century) and koričnevyj (17th century), using the Russian subcorpus of\u0000 Google Books Ngram (2020). Time-series analysis (1800–2019) of bigrams gauged each\u0000 term’s frequencies of occurrence and changes in combinability with nouns for natural objects, artefacts, abstract concepts and\u0000 figurative expressions. In frequency, koričnevyj overtook buryj in the 1920s, confirming its\u0000 basic status in modern Russian. The perplexity index indicates that koričnevyj steadily increased the range of\u0000 denoted objects, with artefacts being front runners in the buryj-to-koričnevyj transition. The\u0000 results corroborate Rakhilina’s (2007a, 2007b, 2008) hypothesis that an incipient ct initially collocates\u0000 with nouns denoting artefacts but gradually expands to the realm of natural objects supplanting an old ct. Moreover,\u0000 koričnevyj and buryj are discerned by denotations and connotations. The present findings\u0000 provide insights into general mechanisms of the linguistic evolution of an emergent basic ct.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44901215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper concerns a semantic change whereby a continuous aspect prefix was reinterpreted as marking realis mood. This change took place in Chatino and then diffused to the Southern Zapotec subgroup, contributing to the genetic diversification of the Zapotec languages. Proto-Zapotecan marked irrealis mood with *k- and did not mark realis. *n- indicated continuous aspect and could concatenate with perfective *ku- to render a resultative reading. A continuous-marked positional verb *n-te later grammaticalized as a progressive prefix in Chatino. As both perfective and progressive refer to (at least partially) realized situations, *n- was reanalyzed as a marker of realis mood that could concatenate with aspectual viewpoint prefixes. The realis prefix is shown to be one of several traits diffused from Chatino which contribute to the creation of the Southern Zapotec clade and its divergence from Monte Albán Zapotec.
{"title":"Realis morphology and Chatino’s role in the diversification of Zapotec languages","authors":"Rosemary G. Beam de Azcona","doi":"10.1075/dia.21027.bea","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.21027.bea","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper concerns a semantic change whereby a continuous aspect prefix was reinterpreted as marking realis mood. This change took place in Chatino and then diffused to the Southern Zapotec subgroup, contributing to the genetic diversification of the Zapotec languages. Proto-Zapotecan marked irrealis mood with *k- and did not mark realis. *n- indicated continuous aspect and could concatenate with perfective *ku- to render a resultative reading. A continuous-marked positional verb *n-te later grammaticalized as a progressive prefix in Chatino. As both perfective and progressive refer to (at least partially) realized situations, *n- was reanalyzed as a marker of realis mood that could concatenate with aspectual viewpoint prefixes. The realis prefix is shown to be one of several traits diffused from Chatino which contribute to the creation of the Southern Zapotec clade and its divergence from Monte Albán Zapotec.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134957542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In syntactic change, it remains an open issue whether word orders are more conservative or innovative in subordinate clauses compared with main clauses. Using 47 dependency-annotated corpora and Bayesian phylogenetic inference, we explore the evolution of S/V, V/O, and S/O orders across main and subordinate clauses in Indo-European. Our results reveal similar rates of change across clause types, with no evidence for any inherent conservatism of subordinate or main clauses. Our models also support evolutionary biases towards SV, VO, and SO orders, consistent with theories of dependency length minimization that favor verb-medial orders and with theories of a subject preference that favor SO orders. Finally, our results show that while the word order in the proto-language cannot be estimated with any reasonable degree of certainty, the early history of the family was dominated by a moderate preference for SVO orders, with substantial uncertainty between VO and OV orders in both main and subordinate clauses.
{"title":"Word order evolves at similar rates in main and subordinate clauses","authors":"Yingqi Jing, P. Widmer, B. Bickel","doi":"10.1075/dia.20035.jin","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.20035.jin","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In syntactic change, it remains an open issue whether word orders are more conservative or innovative in subordinate clauses compared with main clauses. Using 47 dependency-annotated corpora and Bayesian phylogenetic inference, we explore the evolution of S/V, V/O, and S/O orders across main and subordinate clauses in Indo-European. Our results reveal similar rates of change across clause types, with no evidence for any inherent conservatism of subordinate or main clauses. Our models also support evolutionary biases towards SV, VO, and SO orders, consistent with theories of dependency length minimization that favor verb-medial orders and with theories of a subject preference that favor SO orders. Finally, our results show that while the word order in the proto-language cannot be estimated with any reasonable degree of certainty, the early history of the family was dominated by a moderate preference for SVO orders, with substantial uncertainty between VO and OV orders in both main and subordinate clauses.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45318888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study analyzes the numeral systems of Austronesian and Papuan languages, investigating their areal distribution and considering their most likely ancestral states. The presence or absence of different methods of numeration has often been ascribed to contact-induced change. This can certainly be seen in scholarship pertaining to Melanesia, where Austronesian languages probably first came into contact with Papuan languages around 3,500 years ago. Indeed, since Proto-Austronesian is reconstructed as having employed a decimal (base-10) numeral system (with reflexes occurring throughout the Austronesian world), the presence of quinary (base-5) numeral systems in the Austronesian languages of Melanesia has commonly been attributed to contact with Papuan languages. Relying on a typological survey of 1,825 languages, this paper argues that highly conventionalized quinary systems were probably rare in Melanesia prior to the arrival of Austronesian languages. Rather, it was more likely that Austronesian speakers spread lexicalized quinary systems to Papuan groups, not the other way around. In making this argument, the paper stresses that, while numeration may be something that is linguistically encoded in a systematic fashion, it may also be realized as a cultural feature without strongly conventionalized lexicalized expressions.
{"title":"Papuan-Austronesian contact and the spread of numeral systems in Melanesia","authors":"Russell Barlow","doi":"10.1075/dia.22005.bar","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22005.bar","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This study analyzes the numeral systems of Austronesian and Papuan languages, investigating their areal distribution and considering their most likely ancestral states. The presence or absence of different methods of numeration has often been ascribed to contact-induced change. This can certainly be seen in scholarship pertaining to Melanesia, where Austronesian languages probably first came into contact with Papuan languages around 3,500 years ago. Indeed, since Proto-Austronesian is reconstructed as having employed a decimal (base-10) numeral system (with reflexes occurring throughout the Austronesian world), the presence of quinary (base-5) numeral systems in the Austronesian languages of Melanesia has commonly been attributed to contact with Papuan languages. Relying on a typological survey of 1,825 languages, this paper argues that highly conventionalized quinary systems were probably rare in Melanesia prior to the arrival of Austronesian languages. Rather, it was more likely that Austronesian speakers spread lexicalized quinary systems to Papuan groups, not the other way around. In making this argument, the paper stresses that, while numeration may be something that is linguistically encoded in a systematic fashion, it may also be realized as a cultural feature without strongly conventionalized lexicalized expressions.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46996926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The term “Humboldt’s Universal”, introduced to linguistics in the 1970s, appears to be synonymous with a number of other expressions, some of which are also used to denote different phenomena (e.g. isomorphism). In this paper, the extent of the terminological problem is highlighted, and a plea is made for explanation of how the term is to be understood in the work of individual authors.
{"title":"A terminological problem","authors":"Laurie Bauer","doi":"10.1075/dia.22010.bau","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22010.bau","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The term “Humboldt’s Universal”, introduced to linguistics in the 1970s, appears to be synonymous with a number of\u0000 other expressions, some of which are also used to denote different phenomena (e.g. isomorphism). In this paper, the extent of the\u0000 terminological problem is highlighted, and a plea is made for explanation of how the term is to be understood in the work of\u0000 individual authors.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43590492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Based on internal reconstruction, this paper resolves a long-standing problem observed in Khroskyabs, a West Gyalrongic language (Sino-Tibetan), that seems to sporadically have lenited voiceless stops, resulting in irregular correspondences with East Gyalrongic. Two major sound changes are involved: intervocalic lenition and post-stress intersyllabic compression. It turns out that the processes proposed here are one probable solution to monosyllabicization in languages of Southeast Asia, explaining a pathway from polysyllables or sesquisyllables toward monosyllables. Through examining potential problems of previous reconstructions in various languages, this paper shows that the Khroskyabs case provides a plausible direction in the solution of relevant unresolved problems from a panchronic perspective.
{"title":"Lenition alternation in West Gyalrongic and its implications for Southeast Asian panchronic phonology","authors":"Yunfan Lai","doi":"10.1075/dia.21016.lai","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.21016.lai","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Based on internal reconstruction, this paper resolves a long-standing problem observed in Khroskyabs, a West Gyalrongic language (Sino-Tibetan), that seems to sporadically have lenited voiceless stops, resulting in irregular correspondences with East Gyalrongic. Two major sound changes are involved: intervocalic lenition and post-stress intersyllabic compression. It turns out that the processes proposed here are one probable solution to monosyllabicization in languages of Southeast Asia, explaining a pathway from polysyllables or sesquisyllables toward monosyllables. Through examining potential problems of previous reconstructions in various languages, this paper shows that the Khroskyabs case provides a plausible direction in the solution of relevant unresolved problems from a panchronic perspective.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46175630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper demonstrates that unexpected sound changes are best explained by an approach that accounts for different motivations: phonetic, structural and social. Here, we focus on a multifaceted investigation of the cross-linguistically uncommon bilabial trills to show the complex interaction between different drivers of sound change. In this paper, we highlight and examine the prenasalized voiced bilabial trill mʙ and plain voiceless bilabial trill p [ʙ̥] found in a number of Oceanic languages spoken on Malekula Island in Vanuatu. We offer a comparative-historical analysis, and we identify the various forces that have led to the emergence and persistence of mʙ and p in Malekula languages: the historical articulatory environments, the particular make-up of the consonant inventories of these languages, complementary sound changes and phonological processes, contact with non-Austronesian languages, and in-group identity attachment. Furthermore, we offer a hypothesis for the relative timing of these factors on the historical pathway of Malekula’s bilabial trills.
{"title":"A multifaceted approach to understanding unexpected sound change","authors":"Tihomir Rangelov, M. Walworth, J. Barbour","doi":"10.1075/dia.21051.ran","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.21051.ran","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper demonstrates that unexpected sound changes are best explained by an approach that accounts for\u0000 different motivations: phonetic, structural and social. Here, we focus on a multifaceted investigation of the cross-linguistically\u0000 uncommon bilabial trills to show the complex interaction between different drivers of sound change. In this paper, we highlight\u0000 and examine the prenasalized voiced bilabial trill \u0000 mʙ and plain voiceless bilabial trill \u0000 p\u0000 [ʙ̥] found in a\u0000 number of Oceanic languages spoken on Malekula Island in Vanuatu. We offer a comparative-historical analysis, and we identify the\u0000 various forces that have led to the emergence and persistence of \u0000 mʙ and \u0000 p\u0000 in Malekula languages: the\u0000 historical articulatory environments, the particular make-up of the consonant inventories of these languages, complementary sound\u0000 changes and phonological processes, contact with non-Austronesian languages, and in-group identity attachment. Furthermore, we\u0000 offer a hypothesis for the relative timing of these factors on the historical pathway of Malekula’s bilabial trills.","PeriodicalId":44637,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49434826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：