Linguistic Variation, Language Change, and Latin Inscriptions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kruschwitz
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Latin Language

This chapter investigates Latin inscriptions that contain linguistic features which appear to stem from popular, as opposed to elite, usage and are rarely, if ever, found in Roman literary authors, unless these were explicitly seeking to mimic uneducated, semi-literate, or moronic people’s speech. Topics treated include: diastratic, diaphasic, and diatopic varieties of Latin, the now contested concept of “Vulgar Latin,” and the phonology, morphology, and syntax and semantics of such Latin inscriptions. The chapter traces the broader use of the Latin language than that found in the literary corpus and thus widens our understanding of what may be considered “standard” Latin.

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 Variation in Faroese and the development of a spoken standard: In search of corpus evidence

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Knooihuizen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Rapid Social Change ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Constrained Variation

Although Faroese exhibits extensive linguistic variation and rapid social change, the language is near-uncharted territory in variationist sociolinguistics. This article discusses some recent social changes in Faroese society in connection with language change, focusing in particular on the development of a de facto spoken standard, Central Faroese. Demographic mobility, media and education may be contributing to this development in different ways. Two linguistic variables are analysed as a first step towards uncovering the respective roles of standardisation, dialect levelling and dialect spread as contributing processes in the formation of Central Faroese: morphological variation in -st endings and phonological variation in -ir and -ur endings. The analysis confirms previously described patterns of geographically constrained variation, but no generational or stylistic differences indicative of language change are found, nor are there clear signs that informants use Central Faroese. The results may in part be due to the structure of the corpus used.

THE LATIN OF THE PASSIONES MARTYRVM OF LATE ANTIQUE ROME

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 96-143
Author(s):  
Michael Lapidge
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Educational Standards ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Rightward Shift ◽  
Latin Language

A substantial number of passiones (some forty) of Roman martyrs was composed at Rome and its environs between the early fifth and late seventh century (c. 425 – c. 675). Although these texts have hitherto been neglected by students of the Latin language (not least because they are only available in early printed editions dating from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, none of which are easily accessible), they provide a valuable witness to changes in the language during that period, when, as a reflex of developments in the spoken language and of deterioration in educational standards, written Latin began to exhibit a rightward shift of verb satellites (change to VO-order in main clauses, placement of the infinitive after the modal auxiliary, placement of the dependent genitive after its noun etc.), as well as a number of associated linguistic features. These changes are illustrated by statistical analyses, the results of which are presented in accompanying tables.

Sociolinguïstiek En Dialectologie

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 115-130
Author(s):  
Johan Taeldeman
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Psychological Dimension ◽  
Geographical Dimension ◽  
Dialect Geography

In this confrontative article I take stock of what socioiinguistics and dialec-tology (= dialect geography), in spite of (or thanks to?) their own focus and their own theoretical underpinnings, have contributed to the study of language change. This confrontation consists of two parts: First (4.1.) I deal with those aspects where socioiinguistics has contributed substantially to the exploration of language change and at the same time has had a renewing influence on dialectology: 1) Sociolinguists have started measuring the functional/communicative strength of linguistic varieties that in a certain area may supply competing variants. 2) By all kinds of micro-research into linguistic variation in correlation with social and situational factors socioiinguistics has drawn a much more refined picture of the process of language change. 3) Socioiinguistics has reintroduced attention to the psychological dimension of language change ( _ inquiries into the attitudes towards compet-ing varieties and variants and into the awareness of social differentiation in language). In a second part (4.2.) I deal with those aspects where the contribution of dialectology has been more substantial and where socioiinguistics urgently needs some broadening: 1) In general dialectologists have better recognized that linguistic varia-tion (as a random indication of language change) is also embedded in the systemic dimension of language. This prevents the investigation of (linguistic) variety for variety's sake. 2) Dialectology permanently instructs sociolinguists that linguistic variation (and hence language change) also occurs along a spa-tial/geographical dimension. 3) The dialogist's traditional tool, the dialect map with the so often (unjustly) abused isogloss, provides the socioiinguistics with lots of interesting instructions where as to catch linguistic change in progress. In general both disciplines display such a delicious complementarity that (sterile) discussions about their mutual demarcation should urgently be replaced by a thorough examination of each other's methods and findings.

Deriving the Wug-Shaped Curve: A Criterion for Assessing Formal Theories of Linguistic Variation

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 473-494
Author(s):  
Bruce Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Lexical Frequency ◽  
Frequency Matching ◽  
Sigmoid Curve ◽  
Formal Theories ◽  
Free Variation

In this review, I assess a variety of constraint-based formal frameworks that can treat variable phenomena, such as well-formedness intuitions, outputs in free variation, and lexical frequency-matching. The idea behind this assessment is that data in gradient linguistics fall into natural mathematical patterns, which I call quantitative signatures. The key signatures treated here are the sigmoid curve, going from zero to one probability, and the wug-shaped curve, which combines two or more sigmoids. I argue that these signatures appear repeatedly in linguistics, and I adduce examples from phonology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, phonetics, and language change. I suggest that the ability to generate these signatures is a trait that can help us choose between rival frameworks.

Arabic Historical Dialectology

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
South Arabia ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Arabic Speaking

This book, by a group of leading international scholars, outlines the history of the spoken dialects of Arabic from the Arab conquests of the seventh century up to the present day. It specifically investigates the evolution of Arabic as a spoken language, in contrast to the many existing studies that focus on written Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. The volume begins with a discursive introduction that deals with important issues in the general scholarly context, including the indigenous myth and probable reality of the history of Arabic; Arabic dialect geography and typology; types of internally and externally motivated linguistic change; social indexicalization; and pidginization and creolization in Arabic-speaking communities. Most chapters then focus on developments in a specific region—Mauritania, the Maghreb, Egypt, the Levant, the Northern Fertile Crescent, the Gulf, and South Arabia—with one exploring Judaeo-Arabic, a group of varieties historically spread over a wider area. The remaining two chapters in the volume examine individual linguistic features of particular historical interest and controversy, specifically the origin and evolution of the b- verbal prefix, and the adnominal linker –an/–in. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students of the linguistic and social history of Arabic as well as to comparative linguists interested in topics such as linguistic typology and language change.

Modern Judeo-Provençal as Known from Its Sole Textual Testimony: Harcanot et Barcanot (Critical Edition and Linguistic Analysis)

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-237
Author(s):  
Peter Nahon
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Critical Edition ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Relevant Document ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theatrical Play ◽  
Phonetic Features

Abstract This study offers a linguistic description of the idiom of the Jews of the Comtat Venaissin (“Judeo-Provençal”) at the end of the 18th century, based on a critical edition of the only relevant document illustrating this language, a theatrical play in verse entitled Harcanot et Barcanot. The introduction provides a philological inventory of all known sources of “Judeo-Provençal.” The critical and variorum edition of the text, accompanied by linear glosses in English, is followed by a commentary comprising a glossary and analysis of all relevant linguistic features. It reveals, inter alia, that this language possessed words pertaining to the linguistic repertoire of French Jews since the Middle Ages; as for the phonetic features of the Jewish dialect of Provençal, their etiology is to be found in the history of the communities. The study concludes with a reassessment of the nature of linguistic variation in the dialect of the Jews of Provence.

scholarly journals A new role for narrative in variationist sociolinguistics

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Structure And Function ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Central Interest ◽  
Narrative Functions ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
And Function ◽  
Narrative Syntax ◽  
Shed Light

Labov and Waletzky’s (1997[1967]) path-breaking description of “narrative syntax” arose in the context of variationist sociolinguistic research, and narrative continues to be an important source of data for variationist’ work. In most of this work, however, narrative is not the object of study. Variationist sociolinguists are interested in the structure and function of sounds, words, and phrases found in narrative data, but they have not typically asked how the structure and function of narrative itself might bear on the questions about linguistic variation and language change that define their field. Here I suggest that close attention to the structure and function of narrative can, in fact, shed light on a topic of central interest to variationists, namely vernacular norm-formation. I argue that narratives about encounters with linguistic difference help create shared orientations to particular sets of nonstandard linguistic features and link them with region, class, and other sources of identity. I further suggest that narrative functions particularly well as a vehicle for language-ideological differentiation (Gal & Irvine, 1995) of this sort.

scholarly journals How do English translations differ from non-translated English writings? A multi-feature statistical model for linguistic variation analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianyao Hu ◽  
Richard Xiao ◽  
Andrew Hardie
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Variation Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
British English ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Common Features ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Textual Features

Abstract This paper discusses the debatable hypotheses of “Translation Universals”, i. e. the recurring common features of translated texts in relation to original utterances. We propose that, if translational language does have some distinctive linguistic features in contrast to non-translated writings in the same language, those differences should be statistically significant, consistently distributed and systematically co-occurring across registers and genres. Based on the balanced Corpus of Translational English (COTE) and its non-translated English counterpart, the Freiburg-LOB corpus of British English (FLOB), and by deploying a multi-feature statistical analysis on 96 lexical, syntactic and textual features, we try to pinpoint those distinctive features in translated English texts. We also propose that the stylo-statistical model developed in this study will be effective not only in analysing the translational variation of English but also be capable of clustering those variational features into a “translational” dimension which will facilitate a crosslinguistic comparison of translational languages (e. g. translational Chinese) to test the Translation Universals hypotheses.

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