On the use of data in historical linguistics: word order in early English subordinate clauses

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-106
Author(s):  
ØYSTEIN HEGGELUND
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Data Usage ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Early English

This article critically assesses Lightfoot's (1991, 2006) ‘degree-0 theory’ of language change, specifically the use that Lightfoot makes of empirical data from Old English (OE) and Middle English (ME). This is followed by the presentation of a recent analysis of word order in a variety of OE and ME sources. It is argued that data from these periods do not support the ‘degree-0 theory’. Rather, the data demonstrate that verb-final and object–verb order were less dominant in OE subordinate clauses than previously assumed, and that the shift to SV order was fairly gradual. There is also little in the data to suggest that subordinate clauses and main clauses developed in radically different manners or at radically different speeds. The article highlights the importance of careful data usage, both with respect to type and scope of material, and the interpretation of data collected and categorised by others.

The Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evert van Emde Boas ◽  
Albert Rijksbaron ◽  
Luuk Huitink ◽  
Mathieu de Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Reference Grammar ◽  
Essential Resource ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Made In

This is the first full-scale reference grammar of Classical Greek in English in a century. The first work of its kind to reflect significant advances in linguistics made in recent decades, it provides students, teachers and academics with a comprehensive yet user-friendly treatment. The chapters on phonology and morphology make full use of insights from comparative and historical linguistics to elucidate complex systems of roots, stems and endings. The syntax offers linguistically up-to-date descriptions of such topics as case usage, tense and aspect, voice, subordinate clauses, infinitives and participles. An innovative section on textual coherence treats particles and word order and discusses several sample passages in detail, demonstrating new ways of approaching Greek texts. Throughout the book numerous original examples are provided, all with translations and often with clarifying notes. Clearly laid-out tables, helpful cross-references and full indexes make this essential resource accessible to users of all levels.

scholarly journals Object-Verb in Early Modern English: Modelling Markedness

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Pérez-Guerra
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Statistical Modelling ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Related Text ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Early English ◽  
Order Pattern

Abstract Although Verb-Object (VO) is the basic unmarked constituent order of predicates in Present-Day English, in earlier stages of the language Object-Verb (OV) is the preferred pattern in some syntactic contexts. OV predicates are significantly frequent in Old and Middle English, and are still attested up to 1550, when they “appear to dwindle away” (Moerenhout & van der Wurff 2005: 83). This study looks at OV in Early Modern English (EModE), using a corpus-based perspective and statistical modelling to explore a number of textual, syntactic, and semantic/processing variables which may account for what by that time had already become a marked, though not yet archaic, word-order pattern. The data for the study were retrieved from the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English (1500–1710) and the Parsed Corpus of Early English Correspondence (c.1410–1695), the largest electronic parsed collections of EModE texts. The findings reveal a preference for OV in speech-related text types, which are less constrained by the rules of grammar, in marked syntactic contexts, and in configurations not subject to the general linearisation principles of end-weight and given-new. Where these principles are complied with, the probability of VO increases.

scholarly journals SYNTAX STUDIES IN HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN AS INDO-GERMANIC LANGUAGES

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Ana Purwitasari
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
English Word ◽  
Old High German ◽  
Sentence Patterns ◽  
Germanic Languages

This research aims to describe the development of syntax in English and German diachronically and involves a broader inquiry into English and German as sister languages rooted from Germanic language. In this research, the author gathered data from manuscripts written in both the English and German languages produced at particular times. This research used descriptive-qualitative method. The results showed that: 1) Diachronically, English and German have gone through four periods in their syntax patterns development; 2) Old English and Old High German sentence patterns are apparently the same, adopting SVO-structure; 3) The existence of conjunction separates the verb and object in German, but it does not change anything in the English word-order, from Middle English to Modern English; 3) Early Modern English verbs should be put in the second position. However, Early New High German verb is placed in agreement with the conjunction since conjunction influences the position of the verb and object.Keywords: Syntax; Germanic languages; historical linguistics; Indo-Germanic languagesPenelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan perkembangan sintaksis dalam bahasa Inggris dan bahasa Jerman secara diakronik dan merupakan penelitian yang diperluas terkait bahasa Inggris dan bahasa Jerman sebagai rumpunbahasa yang berasal dari bahasa Jermanik. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis mengumpulkan data dari manuskrip yang ditulis dalam keduabahasa tersebut, bahasa Inggris danJerman,pada waktu tertentu. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: 1) Secara diakronik, bahasaInggris dan Jerman telah melalui empat periode dalam pengembangan pola sintaksisnya; 2) Pola kalimat bahasaInggris lama dan Jerman lama tampaknya sama, yaitu memilikistruktur SVO; 3) Adanya konjungsi yang memisahkan kata kerja dan benda dalam bahasa Jerman, tidak mengubah apapun dalam ketentuankata perintah padabahasa InggrisdaribahasaInggrisAbad Pertengahan ke bahasa Inggris Modern; 3) Kata kerja bahasa Inggris di awalmasabahasaInggrisModern harus diletakkan di posisi kedua. Namundemikian, kata kerja bahasaJermanditempatkan bersama konjungsi sejakkonjungsimempengaruhi posisi kata kerja dan objek.Kata kunci: Sintaksis; bahasa Jerman; linguistik historis; bahasa Indo-JermanKata kunci: Sintaksis; bahasa Jerman; linguistik historis; bahasa Indo-Jerman

Ergativity and Language Change in Austronesian Languages

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritsuko Kikusawa
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Inverse System ◽  
Austronesian Languages ◽  
Alignment System ◽  
Order Change ◽  
Word Order Change

The focus of this chapter is change that takes place in the case-alignment patterns found in pronominal systems in Austronesian languages. Three sets of changes that resulted in a shift from an ergative to a different alignment system are described, namely, a case from an ergative to an inverse system that was probably triggered by a word order change; one from an ergative to an accusative system as a result of a merger of two pronominal sets; and an ergative to accusative change as a result of change in the distribution of morphological forms. For each, the mechanisms by which the changes took place and their preconditions are described. Since the methodology for morphosyntactic comparison and reconstruction is not yet well established, how the changes described here relate to the general principles of comparative (historical) linguistics is also explained.

Uriel Weinreich: Builder on Empirical Foundations

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-266
Author(s):  
William Labov
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Advising Style

Abstract In this article, William Labov offers a personal take on the scholarly accomplishments and advising style of Uriel Weinreich, his mentor and later his colleague as well. He also draws on letters he and Weinreich exchanged in the mid-1960s, and he documents aspects of the collaboration that resulted in Weinreich’s most lasting contribution to the study of language change, the 1968 Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog paper (U. Weinreich, W. Labov, and M.I. Herzog. “Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change,” in Directions for Historical Linguistics, eds. W.P. Lehmann and Y. Malkiel. Austin: University of Texas Press, 95–195).

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.

Language Change and Movement as Seen by Historical Linguistics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Nurse
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Language Boundaries ◽  
Over Time

The focus of this chapter is on how languages move and change over time and space. The perceptions of historical linguists have been shaped by what they were observing. During the flowering of comparative linguistics, from the late 19th into the 20th century, the dominant view was that in earlier times when people moved, their languages moved with them, often over long distances, sometimes fast, and that language change was largely internal. That changed in the second half of the 20th century. We now recognize that in recent centuries and millennia, most movements of communities and individuals have been local and shorter. Constant contact between communities resulted in features flowing across language boundaries, especially in crowded and long-settled locations such as most of Central and West Africa. Although communities did mix and people did cross borders, it became clear that language and linguistic features could also move without communities moving.

Isoglosses and language change: Evidence of the rise and loss of isoglosses from a comparison of early Greek and early English

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-575
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Lavidas
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Considerable Distance ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Structural Ambiguity ◽  
Early English ◽  
Aspectual Verbs

Abstract We analyze the rise and loss of isoglosses in two Indo-European languages, early Greek and early English, which, however, show considerable distance between their structures in many other domains. We follow Keidan’s approach (2013), that has drawn the attention on the fact that the study of isoglosses (i.e., linguistic features common to two or more languages) is connected with common innovations of particular languages after the split into sub-groups of Indo-European: this type of approach aims at collecting isoglosses that appear across the branches of Indo-European. We examine the rise of the isogloss of labile verbs and the loss of the isogloss of the two classes of aspectual verbs in early Greek and early English. Our study shows that the rise of labile verbs in both languages is related to the innovative use of intransitives in causative constructions. On the other hand, the innovations in voice morphology follow different directions in Greek and English and are unrelated to the rise of labile verbs. In contrast to labile verbs, which are still predominant for causative-anticausative constructions in both languages, the two classes of aspectual verbs are lost in the later stages of Greek but are predominant even in Present-day English. Again, a “prerequisite” change for the isogloss can be easily located in a structural ambiguity that is relevant for aspectual verbs in early Greek and early English. However, another independent development, the changes in verbal complementation (the development of infinitival and participial complements) in Greek and English, determined the loss of this isogloss.

scholarly journals Using the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) as a teaching resource

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-606
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE WALLIS
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
Teaching Resource ◽  
The University ◽  
Late Modern

This article reports on the use of the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) as a teaching resource in historical sociolinguistics and historical linguistics courses at the University of Sheffield. Pronouncing dictionaries are an invaluable resource for students learning about processes of standardisation and language attitudes during the Late Modern English period (1700–1900), however they are not easy to use in their original format. Each author uses their own notation system to indicate their recommended pronunciation, while the terminology used to describe the quality of the vowels and consonants differs from that used today, and provides an additional obstacle to the student wishing to interrogate such sources. ECEP thus provides a valuable intermediary between the students and the source material, as it includes IPA equivalents for the recommended pronunciations, as well as any metalinguistic commentary offered by the authors about a particular pronunciation. This article demonstrates a teaching approach that not only uses ECEP as a tool in its own right, but also explores how it can be usefully combined with other materials covering language change in the Late Modern English period to enable students to undertake their own investigations in research-led courses.

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