Language processes, theory and description of language change, and building on the past

Language emerges and changes primarily through communication; therefore communication technologies play a key role in the history of language change. The most powerful communication technology from this point of view is phonetic writing, which has a double effect on language: on the one hand it impoverishes suprasegmental linguistic resources; on the other hand it evokes in language a profound and sophisticated semantic precision, and also syntactic complexity. The huge progress in abstract human thought that has taken place over the past three or four centuries has come about on the basis of these linguistic changes. Today, when writing seems to be losing its earlier hegemony over communication, the question arises as to whether this will lead to the erosion of human language, and also of human thought.

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LANGUAGE CONTACT AND CHANGE: SUMMARY OBSERVATIONS

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0267190503000308 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 23 ◽

pp. 243-249 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

G. Richard Tucker

Keyword(s):

Language Contact ◽

Language Change ◽

The United States ◽

Language Loss ◽

The European Union ◽

New Members ◽

The Past ◽

Contact Language ◽

General Topic ◽

Language Contact And Change

Various facets of the general topic of multilingualism, including language contact, have been dealt with in previous ARAL volumes (e.g., under separate entries in volumes 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, and 15) and as a major substantive focus in volumes 6, 14 and 17. Nonetheless, it does not seem at all surprising that we return to the specific topic of language contact and change in volume 23 given the worldwide incidence of the phenomenon and the attention, and often controversy, which various aspects of language contact, language change or language loss arouses. Thus, I find it interesting that, within the past 12 months, issues related to language contact and derivative implications have surfaced as important factors in public discussions in such disparate settings as the November 2002 elections in several of the states in the United States, the admission of new members to the European Union, and immigration to Australia. Clearly, the topics of language contact and language change are salient and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

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The refuge of a dying variant within the grammar: Patterns of change and continuity in the Spanish verbal periphrasishaber de + infinitive over the past two centuries

Language Variation and Change ◽

10.1017/s0954394514000210 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 89-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

José Luis Blas Arroyo ◽

Javier Vellón Lahoz

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Detailed Analysis ◽

20Th Century ◽

Language Change ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

The Past ◽

History Of ◽

Selection Of

AbstractBased on a corpus of ego-documents (private letters, diaries, memoirs) from the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, this paper presents a variationist comparative study to determine the fate of the modal periphrasishaber de + infinitive in the history of modern Spanish. Detailed analysis of the envelope of variation enables us to show that, despite an abrupt decline in the selection ofhaber derelative totener que, both ‘to have to’, grammatical environments that favor its use remain in the mid-20th century. Many of the factor groups and the hierarchy of constraints during this period are similar to those that operated in previous periods. Nevertheless, a generalized decrease in the explanatory power of these factor groups, as well as some divergent patterns within several of these groups are also observed, mainly as a result of the fact thathaber de + infinitive is increasingly relegated to some restricted areas of the grammar and lexicon. Based on these results, some theoretical implications for changing rates and constraints in language change and grammaticalization are discussed.

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Bilingual Education

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0267190500001239 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 103-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Arturo Tosi

Keyword(s):

Soviet Union ◽

Bilingual Education ◽

Language Change ◽

Western World ◽

Republic Of China ◽

The Past ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

Language Spread ◽

The One

In the past two decades bilingual education has become an educational movement and a field of academic inquiry of remarkable growth throughout the world. At first glance this appears to be the outcome of the increasingly hegemonic role of a few languages like English in the western world and countries economically affiliated to it, Russian in the multilingual republics of the Soviet Union, and Putonghua in the People's Republic of China. But a closer look at the first of these areas—the one better known to us—shows how complex the dynamics of language spread and language change are in diverse sociopolitical contexts.

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Doppelperfekt und Plusquamperfekt im Hoch- und Oberrheinalemannischen Südwestdeutschlands

Linguistik Online ◽

10.13092/lo.98.5931 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 98 (5) ◽

pp. 77-97

Author(s):

Jens Leonhard

Keyword(s):

Language Change ◽

Statistical Evaluation ◽

The Past ◽

Western Germany ◽

Upper Rhine

In this paper I discuss the tenses Doppelperfekt and Plusquamperfekt in spoken High Alemannic and Upper-Rhine Alemannic in south-western Germany with a usage-based approach and a statistical evaluation. I show that both Doppelperfekt and Plusquamperfekt have a past perfect meaning, i. e. they refer to a point of time in the past placed before another point of time in the past. Furthermore, I account for a language change in the timespan from 1974 to 2013 in which the Plusquamperfekt becomes more frequent in relation to the Doppelperfekt. Additionally, I show that speakers use the Doppelperfekt in the old data with both auxiliaries (sein and haben), and in the new data only with the auxiliary haben. In contrast to this, the Plusquamperfekt is used in the old data only with the auxiliary sein, and in the new data with both auxiliaries sein and haben. These results could lead to the conclusion that the Doppelperfekt und Plusquamperfekt cannot exist simultaneously in an equivalent manner.

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Yiddish–Lithuanian bilingualism: Incomplete acquisition, change through contacts, or both?

International Journal of Bilingualism ◽

10.1177/1367006920932664 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 136700692093266

Author(s):

Anna Verschik

Keyword(s):

Heritage Language ◽

Language Change ◽

First Language ◽

Past Tense ◽

Minority Languages ◽

The Past ◽

Research Questions ◽

L1 Acquisition ◽

Significant Factors ◽

Incomplete Acquisition

Aims and Objectives/Purposes/Research Questions: Studies on incomplete first language (L1) acquisition emphasize restricted input, the low prestige of heritage/immigrant/minority languages, and age of acquisition as significant factors contributing to changes in L1. However, it is not always clear whether it is possible to distinguish results of incomplete acquisition and contact-induced language change. This article deals with two Yiddish–Lithuanian bilinguals who acquired both languages at home (recorded in 2010 and 2011). The focus of the article is the absence of the Yiddish past tense auxiliary in both informants and the replacement of Yiddish discourse-pragmatic words by their Lithuanian or English equivalents in the speech of the second informant. Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative analysis of the speech of two Yiddish–Lithuanian bilinguals. Data and Analysis: Two sets of recordings analyzed for the past tense use and other features mentioned in Yiddish attrition studies. Findings/Conclusions: Restricted input is to be considered as a factor in any case. However, it is argued that phenomena reported in the heritage language literature are often the same as in the contact linguistic literature: impact on non-core morphosyntax, prosody, and word order are usually mentioned as primary candidates of contact-induced structural change. Based on purely linguistic phenomena, it is not possible to distinguish between the results of acquisition under the conditions of limited input and in other contact situations where limited input is not necessarily the case. Many features of the informants’ Yiddish are a result of Lithuanian impact. Originality: Yiddish–Lithuanian early bilingualism is extremely rare nowadays. The data and analysis contribute to a general understanding of the interplay between contact-induced language change and limited input. Significance/Implications: Unlike what is often presumed, it is not always possible to make comparisons to monolinguals or balanced bilinguals because monolingual speakers of Yiddish do not exist.

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The sociolinguistics of a short-lived innovation: Tracing the development of quotative all across spoken and internet newsgroup data

Language Variation and Change ◽

10.1017/s0954394510000098 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 191-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Isabelle Buchstaller ◽

John R. Rickford ◽

Elizabeth Closs Traugott ◽

Thomas Wasow ◽

Arnold Zwicky

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Language Change ◽

Linguistic Variation ◽

Research Projects ◽

Short Term ◽

The Past ◽

History Of ◽

Quantitative Analyses

AbstractThis paper examines a short-lived innovation, quotative all, in real and apparent time. We used a two-pronged method to trace the trajectory of all over the past two decades: (i) Quantitative analyses of the quotative system of young Californians from different decades; this reveals a startling crossover pattern: in 1990/1994, all predominates, but by 2005, it has given way to like. (ii) Searches of Internet newsgroups; these confirm that after rising briskly in the 1990s, all is declining. Tracing the changing usage of quotative options provides year-to-year evidence that all has recently given way to like. Our paper has two aims: We provide insights from ongoing language change regarding short-term innovations in the history of English. We also discuss our collaboration with Google Inc. and argue for the value of newsgroups to research projects investigating linguistic variation and change in real time, especially where recorded conversational tokens are relatively sparse.

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Interesting fellow or tough old bird? 3rd person male referents in Ontario

American Speech ◽

10.1215/00031283-8661833 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Karlien Franco ◽

Sali A. Tagliamonte

Keyword(s):

Social Network ◽

20Th Century ◽

Language Change ◽

Urban Centre ◽

Total N ◽

Geographic Factors ◽

The Past ◽

Using Data ◽

Insight Into ◽

Network Type

English has many words to refer to an adult man, e.g. man, guy, dude, and these are undergoing change in Ontario dialects. This paper analyzes the distribution of these and related forms using data collected in Ontario, Canada. In total, N = 6788 tokens for 17 communities were extracted and analyzed with a comparative sociolinguistics methodology for social and geographic factors. The results demonstrate a substantive language change in progress with two striking patterns. First, male speakers in Ontario were the leaders of this change in the past. However, as guy gained prominence across the 20th century, women started using it as frequently as men. Second, these developments are complicated by the complexity of the sociolinguistic landscape. There is a clear urban vs. peripheral division across Ontario communities that also involves both population size and distance from the large urban centre, Toronto. Further, social network type and other local influences are also important. In sum, variation in 3rd person singular male referents in Ontario dialects provides new insight into the co-occurrence and evolution of sociolinguistic factors in the process of language change.

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Some Observations on What Grammaticalization Is and Is Not

Cadernos de Linguística ◽

10.25189/2675-4916.2021.v2.n1.id343 ◽

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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Does Geographic Relocation Induce the Loss of Features from a Single Speaker’s Native Dialect?

Lifespans and Styles ◽

10.2218/ls.v2i1.2016.1428 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 27-34

Author(s):

Hollie Barker

Keyword(s):

Critical Period ◽

Language Change ◽

American English ◽

Dialect Contact ◽

The Past ◽

The Us ◽

Ringo Starr ◽

Individual Speaker ◽

Temporary Accommodation ◽

Native Dialect

Over the past few years, academics such as Sankoff and Blondeau (2007) and Harrington (2006) have exhibited a marked interest in dialect variation and language change across the lifespan. Though it was acknowledged that individuals could temporarily adapt their language to accommodate to other interlocutors, permanent changes to their underlying grammar were previously thought impossible. What has come to light, however, is that as individuals we have been given increasing opportunities to be much more mobile; and as a result, our language has too. The aim of this study is to provide evidence for the claim that social and geographical mobility (in this case geographical) can cause an individual’s language to change. It was motivated by the belief that language cannot change after an individual has surpassed the critical period. The study focuses on one individual speaker in particular: the musician Ringo Starr. The speaker in question lived in Liverpool until the age of 40, before relocating to America. The data for this investigation were sourced from a number of TV and Radio interviews with Starr, taken from 20 years prior to and 20 years after his geographic relocation. In both cases, the interlocutors were speakers of British and American English varieties. The study examines three stable variables that exist in the speaker’s native dialect of Liverpool English — realisation of /t/ to /r/, non-rhoticity, and NURSE ~ SQUARE merger — and investigates whether these remain stable features, are lost completely, or are altered by geographical relocation. The study found that, although the speaker did not lose any features of his native dialect completely, the salience of the variables was affected by the move to the US. The speaker reduced his levels of /t/ to /r/ realisation and became more rhotic in certain phonological and lexical contexts. He retained the NURSE ~ SQUARE merger, but the results showed that he increased his frequency of F1 of NURSE vowels, articulating them slightly lower. Starr never acquired new, American variables such as the alveolar flap. What these results demonstrate is that an individual is capable of changing their language after the supposed “critical period”; it shows that not all change can be attributed to temporary accommodation. Dialect contact with varieties of American English appears to have resulted in some changes to Starr’s grammar.

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