Diachronic change and feature instability

2021 ◽  
pp. 64-83
Author(s):  
Gabriela Alboiu ◽  
Virginia Hill
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Change ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
Obligatory Control ◽  
Constant Flux ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Diachronic Changes ◽  
Formal Features

This chapter focuses on diachronic changes of obligatory control (OC) constructions in Romanian. We argue that the setting for the OC parameter has remained constant since the 16th century, but that the values of the features associated with the C/T/Agr system show systematic change. Specifically, Romanian OC follows the Balkan paradigm (i.e., truncated/FinP clause) which is under tension to accommodate the Romance morphology with Force features that it employs. This pressure results in a continuous cycle, from syncretic to split and, again, to remerged C. This process affects Fin, the only C head available to Romanian OC, alongside constant flux of the T/Agr specifications (i.e., inflected versus uninflected). These findings support the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture (BCC) that sees variation as being restricted to formal features of functional heads (Baker 2008), namely, [+/- Agr] of C/T, while aligning with Biberauer and Walkden’s (2015) observation that diachronic syntax has shifted from the “macro” to the “micro” level.

scholarly journals Formal Syntax, Diachronic Minimalism, and Etymology: The History of French, Chez

2001 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Longobardi
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
History Of ◽  
Parameter Resetting ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Diachronic Changes

Current theories place very mild constraints on possible diachronic changes, something at odds with the trivial observation that actual, “language change” represents a tiny fraction of the variation made a priori available by Universal Grammar. Much recent work in diachronic syntax has actually been guided by the aim of describing changes (e.g., parameter resetting), rather than by concerns of genuine explanation. Here I suggest a radically different viewpoint (the Inertial, Theory of diachronic syntax), namely, that syntactic change not provably due to interference should not occur at all as a primitive-that is, unless forced by changes in the phonology, the semantics, or the lexicon, perhaps ultimately by interface or grammar-external pressures, in line with the minimalist enterprise in synchronic linguistics. I concentrate on a single case, the etymology of Modern French chez, showing howthe proposed approach attains a high degree of explanatory adequacy.

Preserving Canada’s ‘honour’

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Heffernan ◽  
Alison J. Borden ◽  
Alexandra C. Erath ◽  
Julie-Lynn Yang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Spelling Variant ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
Diachronic Changes

Recent studies of orthographic variation have demonstrated that ideology plays a central role in determining which spelling variants are adopted by a community. This study examines the role of ideology in diachronic changes in spelling variant usage in Canadian English. Previous research has shown that patriotic Canadians are opposed to American spelling variants. We hypothesized that American spelling variant usage decreased during periods in which the United States was viewed negatively in Canada, such as the Vietnam War era. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that trends set during periods of anti-American sentiment have resulted in an overall decrease in American spelling variant usage in Canada over the last century. We gathered over 30,000 tokens of spelling variants spanning a period of approximately 100 years. Our results corroborate the first hypothesis but reject the second hypothesis, leading to a complex view of the role of ideology in diachronic change in Canadian English.

Diachronic syntax and learnability: free relatives in thirteenth-century Spanish

1984 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
María-Luisa Rivero
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Negative Information ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Diachronic Syntax ◽  
Free Relatives ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Positive Data ◽  
Successive Generations

ABSTRACTDiachronic change emerges from the construction of grammars by successive generations of learners by exposure to primary data. Learners receive little information concerning what is ungrammatical in their language. To propose learnable systems, linguists should use positive data and not depend on negative information (the learnability criterion). Learnability is relevant to historical linguistics under the view that links diachronic change to grammar construction by the learner. This perspective is used to establish the system of two types of free relatives in thirteenth-century Spanish (quanto que vs. quanto-constructions), and the changes that led to the disappearance of the first type in later centuries.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Virginia Hill ◽  
Alexandru Mardale
Keyword(s):  
Direct Objects ◽  
Diachronic Changes ◽  
New Criteria ◽  
Formal Features

The Introduction summarizes the objectives of the book: (i) to identify the diachronic changes to Romanian DOM with (in)direct objects; (ii) to identify the extent to which the concurrently developing pronominal clitic system interacted with the development of DOM in this language; (iii) to formalize the diachronic changes in the mapping and nature of formal features that trigger DOM in Romanian. Methodologically, these objectives require new criteria for searching the texts ranging from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries; namely, the adoption of a three-way distinction of DOM mechanisms (i.e. CD, DOM-p, and CD+DOM-p), combined with a separation of the doubling from the resumptive pronominal clitics, and syntactically (versus semantically) based statistics that contrast nouns and pronouns under DOM.

scholarly journals A comparative and diachronic analysis of film title translations and appellative effect transfer into Croatian and German

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petar Gabrić ◽  
Iva Brajković ◽  
Letizia Licchetta ◽  
Dorotea Kelčec Ključarić ◽  
Juraj Bezuh
Keyword(s):  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Diachronic Changes

Abstract Studies of film title translations remain scant to this day. The existing studies mainly focus on investigating the sources of difficulties during the translation process. Although the studies employ different analytical approaches, the conclusion in almost all investigations is that the decisive objective during the translation process is the transfer or production of the appellative effect. This study investigates which strategies are employed during translation into Croatian and German and why, as well as possible diachronic changes in the choice of translation strategies. We created a corpus of 935 film titles from 1923 to 2017 and their translations into Croatian and German, which we first classified as either direct translations, free translations, transcreations or transcriptions, and finally we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed the data. Our results show significant differences between the two subcorpora in the choice of translation strategies and motivation, as well as in the patterns of diachronic change. Furthermore, correlations with specific cultural-historical processes are observed.

Diachronic change and the nature of pronominal null subjects

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nerea Madariaga
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
Obligatory Control ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Embedded Contexts

This chapter focuses on the nature of null referential subjects (pro) through a case study in Russian. The loss of pro-drop in Middle Russian implied that: (i) null subjects (NSs) in non-embedded contexts became restricted to instances licensed by pragmatics. (ii) in embedded contexts, learners lost the possibility of parsing pro in the embedded subject gap, and started to parse the alternative null category available, PRO or trace. Afterwards, silent embedded subjects (both finite and non-finite) became licensed only by Obligatory Control. The unified way of licensing NSs in embedded contexts was determined by this diachronic process which confronted learners with two alternative elements to be parsed in the relevant gap, and had to imply some lexical or featural content for the referential pronoun (pro) as opposed to PRO or trace, contradicting views like the rich agreement hypothesis.

A quantitative analysis of age-related differences in Hindi–English code-switching

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110283
Author(s):  
T. Mark Ellison ◽  
Aung Si
Keyword(s):  
Code Switching ◽  
Span Length ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Quantitative Indices ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Bilingual Corpora ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Diachronic Changes

Aims and objectives: Numerical indices developed by Guzman et al. that helped characterize code-switching (CS) patterns in Spanish–English bilingual corpora, were tested on a Hindi–English bilingual corpus. Two main research questions were addressed: first, how does Hindi–English compare with Spanish–English, and second, are there measurable differences in broad CS patterns between older and younger speakers? Methodology: Television interviews of Hindi movie (Bollywood) personalities were transcribed and coded for Hindi and English lexemes. Bespoke software in Python was used to calculate the required indices, which provided information on variables such as the level of language mixing, switching probability, and the distributions of single-language spans. Further indices, such as mean span length and an approximate ratio of insertions to alternations were also calculated. Data and analysis: The indices calculated for the Hindi–English corpus broadly match those calculated for Spanish–English. Statistically significant differences between the older and younger group were detected for some key indices, with older speakers generally using less English. High levels of intra-group variability may be responsible for some indices not showing statistically significant diachronic change. Conclusions: The Guzman et al. indices suggest that Hindi–English and Spanish–English CS resemble each other in certain ways. There have been broad changes in Hindi–English CS patterns over the last few decades, but there are indications that the CS behaviour of individual speakers might change in different ways. Originality: This is the first study to systematically and quantitatively investigate age-related differences in Hindi–English CS, using naturalistic speech in semi-controlled conditions. Implications: The quantitative indices investigated in this study can be used to compare CS behaviour in different language pairs, and can also help detect diachronic changes in CS patterns.

scholarly journals A comparative and diachronic analysis of film title translations and appellative effect transfer into Croatian and German

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petar Gabrić ◽  
Iva Brajković ◽  
Letizia Licchetta ◽  
Juraj Bezuh ◽  
Dorotea Kelčec Ključarić
Keyword(s):  
Translation Process ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Direct Translation ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Free Translation ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Diachronic Changes

Studies of film title translations remain scant to this day. The existing studies mainly focus on investigating the sources of difficulties during the translation process. Although the studies employ different analytical approaches, the conclusion in almost all investigations is that the decisive objective during the translation process is the transfer or production of the appellative effect. This study investigates which strategies are employed during translation into Croatian and German and why, as well as possible diachronic changes in the choice of translation strategies. We created a corpus of 935 film titles from 1923 to 2017 and their translations into Croatian and German, which we first classified as direct translation, free translation, transcreation or transcription, and finally we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed the data. Our results show considerable differences between the two subcorpora in the choice of translation strategies and motivation, as well as in the patterns of diachronic change. Furthermore, correlations with specific cultural-historical processes are observed.

scholarly journals The diachrony of the cognate object construction in Romanian and Hungarian

Diacronia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imola-Ágnes Farkas
Keyword(s):  
Present Stage ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Object Construction ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Diachronic Changes ◽  
Clear Increase

Building on the cross-linguistic observation generally valid in the majority of languages according to which cognate object constructions are frequently subject to diachronic changes, this paper provides an analysis of the history of diachronic changes in the cognate constructions of two typologically unrelated languages. We demonstrate that, although the present stage of Romanian and Hungarian lacks the canonical (aspectual) cognate object construction illustrated in to sleep a sound sleep, this structure does exist in both languages but either at an earlier language stage (the case of Romanian) or at the present language stage, as a result of a clear increase in it towards the modern period, but the cognate nominal is expressed by a pseudo-object (the case of Hungarian). Consequently, the diachronic change in these constructions of these languages is in two different directions.

scholarly journals Acceleration through Digital Communication: Theorizing on a Perceived Lack of Time

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Maria Entschew
Keyword(s):  
Digital Communication ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Release Time ◽  
Systematic Change ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Acceleration Cycle

AbstractDigital communication between humans fundamentally changes the nature of communication. One inherent change is the acceleration of communication as a systematic change in societal life, particularly in the workplace. Often, the aim is to release time resources. However, the acceleration of communication also leads to the opposite: a lack of time. This paradoxical development can be based on an acceleration cycle whereby technologies seem to be a solution on the micro-level, but they are also a significant part of the problem on the meso-level.

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