On conceptualizing grammatical change in a Darwinian framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Michael Breyl ◽  
Elisabeth Leiss
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Precise Position ◽  
Intuitive Appeal ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
New Hosts ◽  
Grammatical Change

Abstract Approaching language change within a Darwinian framework constitutes a long-standing tradition within the literature of diachronic linguistics. However, many publications remain vague, omitting conceptual details or missing necessary terminology. For example, phylogenetic trees of language families are regularly compared to biological speciation, but definitions on mechanisms of inheritance, i.e. how linguistic information is transferred between individuals and cohorts, or on the linguistic correlates to genotype and phenotype are often missing or lacking. In light of this, Haider’s attempts to develop this approach into a theoretically more precise position, closely mirroring principles of Darwinian natural selection in the dimension of diachronic grammatical change, but contrasting this with non-Darwinian lexical change. He draws a comparison to viral replication, essentially positing that grammar variants act as mental viruses, competing for replication in new hosts, i.e. children during critical periods of language acquisition. Haider proposes that in light of this competition for replication, the unconscious fixation of an individual’s grammar leads to diachronic grammatical change largely mirroring Darwinian natural selection. Despite the intuitive appeal this mode of reasoning may feature, the following response paper identifies and discusses a suit of shortcomings to this conceptualization. Some problems arise from underspecified theoretical notions, others due to the incomplete or inaccurate adoption of biological principles, and yet more through a partial incompatibility with empirical data. These criticisms do not amount to a dismissal of the Darwinian framework Haider is following, but to a rejection of Haider’s current position. Albeit it remains unclear if a truly Darwinian approach to language change can be reached, suggestions on how Haider’s theoretical notions could be further developed are made and pertinent efforts may ultimately lead to a productive theory.

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS.Herbert Schendl. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xi + 130. $12.95 paper.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-589
Author(s):  
Michael C. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
General Reader ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
Phonological Change

This brief volume is a contribution to the Oxford introductions to language study series, a set of nontechnical guides to various aspects of the study of language, intended for the general reader with no formal background in linguistics. This book, like the others in the series, is not intended to be a systematic introduction to its subject but rather is designed to give readers a general sense of historical linguistics and to steer them in the direction of further readings. The book is divided into four parts. The first and largest part comprises eight brief essays that treat: (a) the fact that languages evolve over time and attitudes toward them change, (b) data and evidence for reconstructing linguistic history, (c) lexical change, (d) grammatical change, (e) phonological change, (f) language contact, (g) explanations for language change, and (h) recent developments in historical linguistics. The remaining parts of the book contain brief excerpts from readings, further readings, bibliographic references, and a glossary.

“Dragon fly”: Lexical change, local scatter, and the national norm

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-417
Author(s):  
Frank Anshen ◽  
Mark Aronoff
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
National Norm ◽  
Lexical Change

ABSTRACTIn the New York area, there are three local terms for “dragon fly”: darning needle, dining needle, and diamond needle. We analyze the distribution of these terms and their relation to the national norm, dragon fly. (Language variation, dialectology, language change.)

scholarly journals Human evolution: Gradual or Punctuated? Accelerated integration of mtDNA pseudogenes into the nuclear genome coincides with speciation of the human genus. A Hypothesis.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Gunbin ◽  
Konstantin Popadin ◽  
Leonid Peshkin ◽  
Sofia Annis ◽  
Rebecca Ackermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Nuclear Genome ◽  
Internal Clock ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Mtdna Mutation ◽  
Phylogenic Tree ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Branching Point

The question: human evolution- gradual process or a rapid discontinuous change? Whether human origin was a gradual process or a result of rapid change has been a focus of intense debate. Of particular interest is the climate change ~2.9-2.5 Ma, thought to have precipitated the separation of the genus Homo (~2.8Ma). The debate mostly concerned continuity/punctuality of the fossil record, but of course the rate of the underlying genetic change is of ultimate interest/importance. Did hominid lineage experience an increased mutation rate when a large number of hominins emerged and eventually gave rise to the split between Australopitecus/Paranthropus and Homo? The obstacle: vague timing of conventional mutations. The difficulty in answering the above question lies in the way past mutations are timed. Conventional point mutations are assigned to specific branches of the DNA-derived phylogenetic trees. The essence of the problem is that mutations can be located within branch segments from branching point to branching point, but the exact position within the segment is principally unknown. Because the hominid DNA-derived phylogenetic tree is rather sparsely populated with branches, the precision of mutation timing is low, e.g., human-specific mutations can be positioned within ~6 My from separation from chimpanzee. The solution: NUMTs – mutations with an internal clock. NUMTs are insertions of mtDNA sequences into the nuclear genome. Unlike point mutation, each NUMTs actually represents a branch on the mtDNA phylogenic tree and thus its time of insertion can be determined as precise as their branching point can be positioned on the tree. In a sense, NUMTs are “mutations with an internal clock”, which is synchronized with the well-established mtDNA mutation evolution clock. By determining the NUMTs’ insertion time points, one can ask whether whether NUMTs were inserted at a constant rate over time or at increased rate during critical periods of evolution, according with the “punctuated evolution” model. Results: Hundreds of pseudogenes have been inserted into the human genome over the last ~60 My of which we considered the last 6 My. Various quality filters resulted in the selection of 18 NUMTs most suitable for phylogenetic analysis. Insertion times of these 18 NUMTs cluster around 2.8Ma. While timing of insertion of NUMTs is imprecise, the observation such a cluster is highly statistically significant. Discussion: It is tempting to hypothesize that accelerated insertion of NUMTs is somehow linked to the speciation process. NUMTs could be either "riders i.e., the rate of insertion could be increased by the overall higher genome flexibility during the speciation period, or "drivers", i.e. they are fixed in the population at increased rate during speciation due to increased selective pressures. If correct, the hypothesis of accelerated pseudogenization would support the idea that evolution of our genus might have been discontinuous.

Evolution: Medicine’s most basic science

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Randolph M. Nesse ◽  
Richard Dawkins
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Basic Science ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
The Body ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Cost

The role of evolutionary biology as a basic science for medicine is expanding rapidly. Some evolutionary methods are already widely applied in medicine, such as population genetics and methods for analysing phylogenetic trees. Newer applications come from seeking evolutionary as well as proximate explanations for disease. Traditional medical research is restricted to proximate studies of the body’s mechanism, but separate evolutionary explanations are needed for why natural selection has left many aspects of the body vulnerable to disease. There are six main possibilities: mismatch, infection, constraints, trade-offs, reproduction at the cost of health, and adaptive defences. Like other basic sciences, evolutionary biology has limited direct clinical implications, but it provides essential research methods, encourages asking new questions that foster a deeper understanding of disease, and provides a framework that organizes the facts of medicine.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic Methods in Historical Linguistics: Greek as a Case Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne O. Mooers ◽  
Panayiotis A. Pappas
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
General Mechanism ◽  
Current Frequency ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
History Of

AbstractWe review and assess the different ways in which research in evolutionary-theory-inspired biology has influenced research in historical linguistics, and then focus on an evolutionary-theory inspired claim for language change made by Pagel et al. (2007). They report that the more Swadesh-list lexemes are used, the less likely they are to change across 87 Indo-European languages, and posit that frequency-of-use of a lexical item is a separate and general mechanism of language change. We test a corollary of this conclusion, namely that current frequency-of-use should predict the amount of change within individual languages through time. We devise a scale of lexical change that recognizes sound change, analogical change and lexical replacement and apply it to cognate pairs on the Swadesh list between Homeric and Modern Greek. Current frequency-of-use only weakly predicts the amount of change within the history of Greek, but amount of change does predict the number of forms across Indo-European. Given that current frequency-of-use and past frequency-of-use may be only weakly correlated for many Swadesh-list lexemes, and given previous research that shows that frequency-of-use can both hinder and facilitate lexical change, we conclude that it is premature to claim that a new mechanism of language change has been discovered. However, we call for more in-depth comparative study of general mechanisms of language change, including further tests of the frequency-of-use hypothesis.

scholarly journals Unbalanced bilingual acquisition as a mechanism of grammatical change

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN MATTHEWS ◽  
VIRGINIA YIP
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Change ◽  
First Language ◽  
Community Level ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
The Individual

Bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA) has been considered a possible mechanism of contact-induced change in several recent studies (Siegel, 2008, p. 117; Satterfield, 2005, p. 2075; Thomason, 2001, p. 148; Yip & Matthews, 2007, p.15). There is as yet little consensus on the question, with divergent views regarding both BFLA at the individual level and the implications for language change at the community level.

scholarly journals Human evolution: Gradual or Punctuated? Accelerated integration of mtDNA pseudogenes into the nuclear genome coincides with speciation of the human genus. A Hypothesis.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantin Gunbin ◽  
Konstantin Popadin ◽  
Leonid Peshkin ◽  
Sofia Annis ◽  
Rebecca Ackermann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Nuclear Genome ◽  
Internal Clock ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Mtdna Mutation ◽  
Phylogenic Tree ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Branching Point

The question: human evolution- gradual process or a rapid discontinuous change? Whether human origin was a gradual process or a result of rapid change has been a focus of intense debate. Of particular interest is the climate change ~2.9-2.5 Ma, thought to have precipitated the separation of the genus Homo (~2.8Ma). The debate mostly concerned continuity/punctuality of the fossil record, but of course the rate of the underlying genetic change is of ultimate interest/importance. Did hominid lineage experience an increased mutation rate when a large number of hominins emerged and eventually gave rise to the split between Australopitecus/Paranthropus and Homo? The obstacle: vague timing of conventional mutations. The difficulty in answering the above question lies in the way past mutations are timed. Conventional point mutations are assigned to specific branches of the DNA-derived phylogenetic trees. The essence of the problem is that mutations can be located within branch segments from branching point to branching point, but the exact position within the segment is principally unknown. Because the hominid DNA-derived phylogenetic tree is rather sparsely populated with branches, the precision of mutation timing is low, e.g., human-specific mutations can be positioned within ~6 My from separation from chimpanzee. The solution: NUMTs – mutations with an internal clock. NUMTs are insertions of mtDNA sequences into the nuclear genome. Unlike point mutation, each NUMTs actually represents a branch on the mtDNA phylogenic tree and thus its time of insertion can be determined as precise as their branching point can be positioned on the tree. In a sense, NUMTs are “mutations with an internal clock”, which is synchronized with the well-established mtDNA mutation evolution clock. By determining the NUMTs’ insertion time points, one can ask whether whether NUMTs were inserted at a constant rate over time or at increased rate during critical periods of evolution, according with the “punctuated evolution” model. Results: Hundreds of pseudogenes have been inserted into the human genome over the last ~60 My of which we considered the last 6 My. Various quality filters resulted in the selection of 18 NUMTs most suitable for phylogenetic analysis. Insertion times of these 18 NUMTs cluster around 2.8Ma. While timing of insertion of NUMTs is imprecise, the observation such a cluster is highly statistically significant. Discussion: It is tempting to hypothesize that accelerated insertion of NUMTs is somehow linked to the speciation process. NUMTs could be either "riders i.e., the rate of insertion could be increased by the overall higher genome flexibility during the speciation period, or "drivers", i.e. they are fixed in the population at increased rate during speciation due to increased selective pressures. If correct, the hypothesis of accelerated pseudogenization would support the idea that evolution of our genus might have been discontinuous.

scholarly journals Origin in Acinetobacter guillouiae and Dissemination of the Aminoglycoside-Modifying Enzyme Aph(3′)-VI

mBio ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun-Jeong Yoon ◽  
Sylvie Goussard ◽  
Marie Touchon ◽  
Lenka Krizova ◽  
Gustavo Cerqueira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resistance Gene ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Genomic Library ◽  
Antibiotic Resistance Gene ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Promoter Strength ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Hosts ◽  
Acinetobacter Guillouiae

ABSTRACTThe amikacin resistance geneaphA6was first detected in the nosocomial pathogenAcinetobacter baumanniiand subsequently in other genera. Analysis of 133 whole-genome sequences covering the taxonomic diversity ofAcinetobacterspp. detectedaphA6in the chromosome of 2 isolates ofA. guillouiae, which is an environmental species, 1 of 8A. parvusisolates, and 5 of 34A. baumanniiisolates. The gene was also present in 29 out of 36A. guillouiaeisolates screened by PCR, indicating that it is ancestral to this species. ThePnativepromoter foraphA6inA. guillouiaeandA. parvuswas replaced inA. baumanniibyPaphA6, which was generated by use of the insertion sequence ISAba125, which brought a −35 sequence. Study of promoter strength inEscherichia coliandA. baumanniiindicated thatPaphA6was four times more potent thanPnative. There was a good correlation between aminoglycoside MICs andaphA6transcription inA. guillouiaeisolates that remained susceptible to amikacin. The marked topology differences of the phylogenetic trees ofaphA6and of the hosts strongly support its recent direct transfer withinAcinetobacterspp. and also to evolutionarily remote bacterial genera. Concomitant expression ofaphA6must have occurred because, contrary to the donors, it can confer resistance to the new hosts. Mobilization and expression ofaphA6via composite transposons and the upstream IS-generating hybridPaphA6, followed by conjugation, seems the most plausible mechanism. This is in agreement with the observation that, in the recipients,aphA6is carried by conjugative plasmids and flanked by IS that are common inAcinetobacterspp. Our data indicate that resistance genes can also be found in susceptible environmental bacteria.IMPORTANCEWe speculated that theaphA6gene for an enzyme that confers resistance to amikacin, the most active aminoglycoside for the treatment of nosocomial infections due toAcinetobacterspp., originated in this genus before disseminating to phylogenetically distant genera pathogenic for humans. Using a combination of whole-genome sequencing of a collection ofAcinetobacterspp. covering the breadth of the known taxonomic diversity of the genus, gene cloning, detailed promoter analysis, study of heterologous gene expression, and comparative analysis of the phylogenetic trees ofaphA6and of the bacterial hosts, we found thataphA6originated inAcinetobacter guillouiae, an amikacin-susceptible environmental species. The gene conferred, upon mobilization, high-level resistance to the new hosts. This work stresses that nonpathogenic bacteria can act as reservoirs of resistance determinants, and it provides an example of the use of a genomic library to study the origin and dissemination of an antibiotic resistance gene to human pathogens. 

scholarly journals Furiously fast: On the speed of change in formulaic language

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Buerki
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Formulaic Language ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Addressing a topic that has been marginal to discussions within historical linguistics, this study looks at how extent and speed of language change can be quantified meaningfully using corpus data. Looking specifically at formulaic language (understood here as word sequences that instantiate typical phrasings), a solidly data-based assessment of the speed of change within a 100-year time window is offered. This includes both a relative determination of speed (against the speed of change in lexis which is generally thought to be the fastest type of linguistic change, cf. Algeo 1980: 264; Trask and Millar 2010: 7) as well as a new independent measure of speed which is easy to interpret and therefore of high validity, while also robust and potentially applicable to any linguistic feature that can be counted in corpus data. Using data from a diachronic reference corpus of 20th century German, it is shown that change in formulaic language is very notably faster than lexical change, that the extent of change over a century is comparable in extent to contemporary inter-genre variation and that overall, the rate of change does fluctuate somewhat at the level of temporal granularity employed in this study. It is also argued that quantifying the speed of linguistic change can play an important role in building a deeper understanding of language change in general.

scholarly journals Some Observations on What Grammaticalization Is and Is Not

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. e343
Author(s):  
Brian D. Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Language Change ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Grammatical Change

The notion of ‘grammaticalization’ — the embedding of once non- (or less-) grammatical phenomena into the grammar of a language — has enjoyed broad acceptance over the past 30 years as a new paradigm for describing and accounting for linguistic change.  Despite its appeal, my contention is that there are some issues with ‘grammaticalization’ as it is conventionally described and discussed in the literature.  My goal here is to explore what some of those problems are and to focus on what grammaticalization has to offer as a methodology for studying language change.  Drawing on case studies from the history of English and the history of Greek, I reach a characterization of how much of grammatical change can legitimately be called “grammaticalization” and how much is something else. In this way, I work to achieve a sense of what grammaticalization is and what it is not.

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