One of the sources of irrealis markers is former markers of conditional sentences, both protases and apodoses, both factual and counterfactual. The development, amply documented cross-linguistically, is that of insubordination: a former marker of subordination is used as an irrealis marker in main clauses. However, the next stage of development is not commonly observed: when irrealis markers that came into being as the result of insubordination and are used in main clauses spread back to their original locus, conditional sentences. The paper deals with a clear attestation of this pattern in Hittite, an extinct Indo-European language. It is argued that the development is part of a linguistic cycle of the ‘broken’ kind, i.e., that the cycle changed by other processes simultaneously operating in the language.
{"title":"Insubordination and what happens after it","authors":"A. Sideltsev","doi":"10.1075/dia.22043.sid","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22043.sid","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 One of the sources of irrealis markers is former markers of conditional sentences, both protases and apodoses,\u0000 both factual and counterfactual. The development, amply documented cross-linguistically, is that of insubordination: a former\u0000 marker of subordination is used as an irrealis marker in main clauses. However, the next stage of development is not commonly\u0000 observed: when irrealis markers that came into being as the result of insubordination and are used in main clauses spread back to\u0000 their original locus, conditional sentences. The paper deals with a clear attestation of this pattern in Hittite, an extinct\u0000 Indo-European language. It is argued that the development is part of a linguistic cycle of the ‘broken’ kind, i.e., that the cycle\u0000 changed by other processes simultaneously operating in the language.","PeriodicalId":505176,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"119 38","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141820727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The interdependence of accusative case and object agreement has changed dramatically during the history of Ugric languages. While Proto-Ugric exhibited full interdependence (mediated by topicality), this connection has loosened in the extant Ob-Ugric languages (Mansi and Khanty), and it is severed completely in Late to Modern Hungarian. In this paper, I introduce new, hitherto unreported empirical evidence from nicknames and family names that preserve archaic syntactic features for an intermediate stage of Early Old Hungarian (which predates our earliest written records) where case assignment was still a function of topicality but object agreement was already a function of definiteness. In addition to providing insight into an unrecorded stage of Hungarian, my findings also contribute to a more thorough understanding of the connection between case, agreement and information structure in Ugric and beyond.
{"title":"Reconstructing the decoupling of case and agreement in Old Hungarian","authors":"T. Halm","doi":"10.1075/dia.23020.hal","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.23020.hal","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The interdependence of accusative case and object agreement has changed dramatically during the history of Ugric languages. While Proto-Ugric exhibited full interdependence (mediated by topicality), this connection has loosened in the extant Ob-Ugric languages (Mansi and Khanty), and it is severed completely in Late to Modern Hungarian. In this paper, I introduce new, hitherto unreported empirical evidence from nicknames and family names that preserve archaic syntactic features for an intermediate stage of Early Old Hungarian (which predates our earliest written records) where case assignment was still a function of topicality but object agreement was already a function of definiteness. In addition to providing insight into an unrecorded stage of Hungarian, my findings also contribute to a more thorough understanding of the connection between case, agreement and information structure in Ugric and beyond.","PeriodicalId":505176,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140658542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Divergence-time estimation is one of the most important endeavors in historical linguistics. Its importance is matched only by its difficulty. As Bayesian methods of divergence-time estimation have become more common over the past two decades, a number of critical issues have come to the fore, including model sensitivity, the dependence of root-age estimates on uncertain interior-node ages, and the relationship between ancient languages and their modern counterparts. This study addresses these issues in an investigation of a particularly fraught case within Indo-European: the diversification of Latin into the Romance languages. The results of this study support a gradualist account of their formation that most likely began after 300 CE. They also bolster the view that Classical Latin is a sampled ancestor of the Romance languages (i.e., it lies along the branch leading to the Romance languages).
{"title":"Divergence-time estimation in Indo-European","authors":"David Goldstein","doi":"10.1075/dia.22031.gol","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22031.gol","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Divergence-time estimation is one of the most important endeavors in historical linguistics. Its importance is\u0000 matched only by its difficulty. As Bayesian methods of divergence-time estimation have become more common over the past two\u0000 decades, a number of critical issues have come to the fore, including model sensitivity, the dependence of root-age estimates on\u0000 uncertain interior-node ages, and the relationship between ancient languages and their modern counterparts. This study addresses\u0000 these issues in an investigation of a particularly fraught case within Indo-European: the diversification of Latin into the\u0000 Romance languages. The results of this study support a gradualist account of their formation that most likely began after 300\u0000 CE. They also bolster the view that Classical Latin is a sampled ancestor of the Romance languages (i.e., it lies\u0000 along the branch leading to the Romance languages).","PeriodicalId":505176,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"9 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140696175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ancestral State Reconstruction (ASR) is an essential part of historical linguistics (HL). Conventional ASR in HL relies on three core principles: fewest changes on the tree, plausibility of changes and plausibility of the resulting combinations of features in proto-languages. This approach has some problems, in particular the definition of what is plausible and the disregard for branch lengths. This study compares the classic approach of ASR to computational tools (Maximum Parsimony and Maximum Likelihood), conceptually and practically. Computational models have the advantage of being more transparent, consistent and replicable, and the disadvantage of lacking nuanced knowledge and context. Using data from the structural database Grambank, I compare reconstructions of the grammar of ancestral Oceanic languages from the HL literature to those achieved by computational means. The results show that there is a high degree of agreement between manual and computational approaches, with a tendency for classical HL to ignore branch lengths. Explicitly taking branch lengths into account is more conceptually sound; as such the field of HL should engage in improving methods in this direction. A combination of computational methods and qualitative knowledge is possible in the future and would be of great benefit.
祖先状态重建（ASR）是历史语言学（HL）的重要组成部分。历史语言学中传统的祖先状态重建依赖于三个核心原则：树上最少的变化、变化的可信度和原生语言特征组合的可信度。这种方法存在一些问题，特别是对 "可信 "的定义和对分支长度的忽略。本研究将 ASR 的经典方法与计算工具（最大似然法和最大似然法）在概念上和实践上进行了比较。计算模型的优点是更加透明、一致和可复制，缺点是缺乏细微的知识和背景。我利用结构数据库 Grambank 中的数据，比较了从人类语言学文献中重建的大洋洲祖先语言语法与通过计算手段重建的语法。结果表明，人工方法和计算方法之间存在高度的一致性，而经典 HL 则倾向于忽略分支长度。明确考虑分支长度在概念上更为合理；因此，人类语言学领域应朝着这个方向改进方法。未来有可能将计算方法和定性知识结合起来，这将大有裨益。
{"title":"Disentangling Ancestral State Reconstruction in historical linguistics","authors":"Hedvig Skirgård","doi":"10.1075/dia.22022.ski","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22022.ski","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Ancestral State Reconstruction (ASR) is an essential part of historical linguistics (HL).\u0000 Conventional ASR in HL relies on three core principles: fewest changes on the tree, plausibility of changes and\u0000 plausibility of the resulting combinations of features in proto-languages. This approach has some problems, in particular the\u0000 definition of what is plausible and the disregard for branch lengths. This study compares the classic approach of ASR to\u0000 computational tools (Maximum Parsimony and Maximum Likelihood), conceptually and practically. Computational models have the\u0000 advantage of being more transparent, consistent and replicable, and the disadvantage of lacking nuanced knowledge and context.\u0000 Using data from the structural database Grambank, I compare reconstructions of the grammar of ancestral Oceanic languages from\u0000 the HL literature to those achieved by computational means. The results show that there is a high degree of\u0000 agreement between manual and computational approaches, with a tendency for classical HL to ignore branch lengths.\u0000 Explicitly taking branch lengths into account is more conceptually sound; as such the field of HL should\u0000 engage in improving methods in this direction. A combination of computational methods and qualitative knowledge is possible in the\u0000 future and would be of great benefit.","PeriodicalId":505176,"journal":{"name":"Diachronica","volume":"57 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140258635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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