When Language Fails

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Yang
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Numerical Studies ◽  
Tolerance Principle

The theory predicts complete lexicalization when the number of exceptions to a rule exceeds the threshold, which leads to morphological gaps: without a productive rule, you only know the derived form if you hear it otherwise ineffability arises. Detailed numerical studies for gaps in Russian, English, Spanish, and Polish. The Tolerance Principle also directly bears on language variation and change, in that it provides/predicts the conditions under which language change is actuated. As a case study, the theory explains why—and when—the so-called dative sickness, and other instances of case substitution, took place in Icelandic in the 19th centuries.

Usage, media, and grammaticalization

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83
Author(s):  
Liang Tao
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rhetorical Question ◽  
Beijing Mandarin ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This report presents a case study on a current grammatical change in a rhetorical question 不是…吗 (isn’t it the case…?) and its spreading from spoken Beijing Mandarin to Mandarin Chinese in general. The study addresses three interrelated issues that concern the development and spreading of this new pattern: (1) usage-based language variation and change in spoken Beijing Mandarin; (2) Socio-cultural factors that may have promoted the adaptation of the new pattern in Mandarin Chinese; and (3) the impact of media, which may enhance the rapid spreading of the pattern in China. The report offers another instance of usage as the main driving force leading to language variation and grammaticalization.

From Language Contact to Language Variation

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Cerruti
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Italian Region ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western ◽  
Insight Into

This paper falls within the line of research dealing with the role of intralinguistic variation in contact-induced language change. Two constructions are compared in terms of their respective degrees of grammaticalization: the progressive periphrasis ese lì c/a+Verb, which is widespread in some Northern Italo-Romance dialects, and the corresponding Italian construction essere lì che/a+Verb. The study focuses on the presence of such constructions in Turin, the capital of the north-western Italian region of Piedmont, in which the former periphrasis is less grammaticalized than the latter. It contends that the grammaticalization process of essere lì che/a+Verb was triggered by the contact between Piedmontese dialect and Italian, whereas the pace of grammaticalization of this periphrasis is affected by the contact between different varieties of Italian. The paper points out that the case study may provide insight into more general issues concerning not only the interplay of contact and variation in language change but also the role of sociolinguistic factors in shaping contact-induced grammaticalization phenomena.

Looking Beyond Decreolization as an Explanatory Model of Language Change in Creole-Speaking Communities

1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Aceto
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Explanatory Model ◽  
Related Concept ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Variation Data ◽  
Creole Languages

This paper discusses internally-motivated change as a largely ignored factor in understanding diachrony in creole languages: that is, externally-motivated models — and the most popular of these is certainly decreolization and the related concept of the creole continuum — have been nearly exclusively relied upon by creolists to explain phenomena associated with language variation and change in creole-speaking communities, particularly among the Atlantic English-derived creoles. This paper presents one alternative to viewing variation data derived from creole speakers as solely a function of decreolization. It raises issues associated with (and explores alternatives to) that singular view of diachrony.

Third Factors in Language Variation and Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly Van Gelderen
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Generative Syntax ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Cyclical Process ◽  
The Impact

In this pioneering study, a world-renowned generative syntactician explores the impact of phenomena known as 'third factors' on syntactic change. Generative syntax has in recent times incorporated third factors – factors not specific to the language faculty – into its framework, including minimal search, labelling, determinacy and economy. Van Gelderen's study applies these principles to language change, arguing that change is a cyclical process, and that third factor principles must combine with linguistic information to fully account for the cyclical development of 'optimal' language structures. Third Factor Principles also account for language variation around that-trace phenomena, CP-deletion, and the presence of expletives and Verb-second. By linking insights from recent theoretical advances in generative syntax to phenomena from language variation and change, this book provides a unique perspective, making it essential reading for academic researchers and students in syntactic theory and historical linguistics.

scholarly journals The influence of suburban development and metropolitan fragmentation on language variation and change: Evidence from Greater St. Louis

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-97
Author(s):  
Daniel Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Northern Cities Shift ◽  
Northern Cities ◽  
Suburban Development ◽  
Metropolitan Fragmentation

AbstractThe distances between urban and suburban spaces, while small in Euclidean terms, have a rather large social reality. This paper calls attention to two reasons for this—suburban development and metropolitan fragmentation—and situates these phenomena within the context of sociological and historical thought about metropolitan areas. I test their role in linguistic variation through a case study of three Northern Cities Shift features (raised trap, fronted lot, and lowered thought) in English of the St. Louis metropolitan area. I show that these features diffused throughout the region in three different ways. Additionally, phonological conditioning of lot-fronting differs between urban and suburban speakers, and retreat from urban dialect features is led in the suburbs. These findings highlight the need to consider the geography of metropolitan areas more deeply in studies of language variation and change in metropolitan areas, as similarity across a metropolitan area should not be assumed a priori.

Portuguese Relative Clauses in Synchrony and Diachrony

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Cardoso
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Comparative Syntax ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
History Of ◽  
Restrictive Relatives

This book sheds light on language variation and change from a generative syntactic perspective, based on a case study of relative clauses in Portuguese and other languages. Concretely, it offers a comparative account of three linguistic phenomena documented in the synchrony and diachrony of Portuguese: remnant-internal relativization, extraposition of restrictive relatives, and appositive relativization. The research methodology adopted involves comparative syntax, both in the diachronic and the synchronic dimensions: Contemporary European Portuguese is systematically compared with earlier stages of Portuguese; moreover, Portuguese is compared with other languages, in particular Latin, English, Dutch, and Italian. The book provides new perspectives on the syntax of relativization. From a theoretical perspective, it shows that competing analyses need not be either false or true universally, but can be instrumental in explaining language variation (both diachronically and synchronically). As for the variation found in the synchronic and diachronic dimensions, it is proposed that languages (and different stages of the same language) might vary according to whether they allow relativization to be derived from specifying coordination. Moreover, the book reports a series of changes that took place in the history of Portuguese after the sixteenth century, which reduced the patterns of nominal discontinuity available in the language.

scholarly journals MINORITY GROUPS AND LANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN GERMANY AND BRAZIL: AN INTERVIEW WITH GÖZ KAUFMANN (UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG, GERMANY)

2020 ◽  
pp. 279
Author(s):  
Göz Kaufmann ◽  
Rafael Vetromille-Castro ◽  
Bernardo Kolling Limberger ◽  
Helena Dos Santos Kieling
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The University

Göz Kaufmann, who obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1997, completed his habilitation treatise in 2016 and received the venia legendi (livre docência) in German Linguistics from the University of Freiburg, Germany. He holds a permanent position as a senior lecturer (Akademischer Oberrat) for linguistics in the German Department of the University of Freiburg. Kaufmann’s main research areas are sociolinguistics, language contact, language variation, and language change. In the area of language variation and change, his focus is on German minority varieties spoken in South America, particularly Mennonite Low German and Pomerano. Aside from lexical and morphological variation, he analyzes syntactic variation in these varieties combining variationist and generative approaches. Göz Kaufmann worked in Brazil as a guest professor and representative of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) at the UFRGS and the USP. At the University of Pelotas (UFPel), he has already taught several courses and presented numerous talks. For more information, see http://paul.igl.uni-freiburg.de/kaufmann/?Home

scholarly journals Using the Tolerance Principle to predict phonological change

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Betsy Sneller ◽  
Josef Fruehwald ◽  
Charles Yang
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Simulation Method ◽  
Complex Change ◽  
Tolerance Principle ◽  
Phonological Change

AbstractLanguage acquisition is a well-established avenue for language change (Labov, 2007). Given the theoretical importance of language acquisition to language change, it is all the more important to formulate clear theories of transmission-based change. In this paper, we provide a simulation method designed to test the plausibility of different possible transmission-based changes, using the Tolerance Principle (Yang, 2016) to determine precise points at which different possible changes may become plausible for children acquiring language. We apply this method to a case study of a complex change currently in progress: the allophonic restructuring of /æ/ in Philadelphia English. Using this model, we are able to evaluate several competing explanations of the ongoing change and determine that the allophonic restructuring of /æ/ in Philadelphia English is mostly likely the result of children acquiring language from mixed dialect input, consisting of approximately 40% input from speakers with a nasal /æ/ split. We show that applying our simulation to a phonological change allows us to make precise quantitative predications about the progress of this change. Moreover, it forces us to reassess intuitively plausible hypotheses about language change, such as grammatical simplification, in a quantitative and independently motivated framework of acquisition.

Explanations in Sociosyntactic Variation

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
Quantitative Analyses

What explains variation in human language? How are linguistic and social factors related? How do we examine possible semantic differences between variants? These questions and many more are explored in this volume, which examines syntactic variables in a range of languages. It brings together a team of internationally acclaimed authors to provide perspectives on how and why syntax varies between and within speakers, focusing on explaining theoretical backgrounds and methods. The analyses presented are based on a range of languages, making it possible to address the questions from a cross-linguistic perspective. All chapters demonstrate rigorous quantitative analyses, which expose the conditioning factors in language change as well as offering important insights into community and individual grammars. It is essential reading for researchers and students with an interest in language variation and change, and the theoretical framework and methods applied in the study of how and why syntax varies.

Scales and Units

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn M. de Luna
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
First Case ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
River Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Approaches

This chapter uses two case studies to explore how historians study language movement and change through comparative historical linguistics. The first case study stands as a short chapter in the larger history of the expansion of Bantu languages across eastern, central, and southern Africa. It focuses on the expansion of proto-Kafue, ca. 950–1250, from a linguistic homeland in the middle Kafue River region to lands beyond the Lukanga swamps to the north and the Zambezi River to the south. This expansion was made possible by a dramatic reconfiguration of ties of kinship. The second case study explores linguistic evidence for ridicule along the Lozi-Botatwe frontier in the mid- to late 19th century. Significantly, the units and scales of language movement and change in precolonial periods rendered visible through comparative historical linguistics bring to our attention alternative approaches to language change and movement in contemporary Africa.

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