The evolutionary trends of grammatical gender in Indo-Aryan languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Marc Allassonnière-Tang ◽  
Michael Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Evolutionary Trends ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
Feature Values ◽  
Prior Analysis

Abstract This paper infers the processes of development and change of grammatical gender in Indo-Aryan languages using phylogenetic comparative methods. 48 Indo-Aryan languages are coded based on 44 presence-absence features relating to gender marking on the verbs, adjectives, personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and possessive pronouns. A Bayesian Reverse Jump Hyper Prior analysis, which infers the evolutionary dynamics of changes between feature values, gives results that are consistent with historical linguistic and typological studies on gender systems in Indo-Aryan languages and predicts the evolutionary trends of the features included in the dataset.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic Comparative Methods and the Evolution of Multivariate Phenotypes

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 405-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean C. Adams ◽  
Michael L. Collyer
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Generalized Least Squares ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
High Dimensional ◽  
Phenotypic Integration ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Evolutionary Trends ◽  
Phenotype Space ◽  
Multivariate Phenotypes

Evolutionary biology is multivariate, and advances in phylogenetic comparative methods for multivariate phenotypes have surged to accommodate this fact. Evolutionary trends in multivariate phenotypes are derived from distances and directions between species in a multivariate phenotype space. For these patterns to be interpretable, phenotypes should be characterized by traits in commensurate units and scale. Visualizing such trends, as is achieved with phylomorphospaces, should continue to play a prominent role in macroevolutionary analyses. Evaluating phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models (e.g., phylogenetic analysis of variance and regression) is valuable, but using parametric procedures is limited to only a few phenotypic variables. In contrast, nonparametric, permutation-based PGLS methods provide a flexible alternative and are thus preferred for high-dimensional multivariate phenotypes. Permutation-based methods for evaluating covariation within multivariate phenotypes are also well established and can test evolutionary trends in phenotypic integration. However, comparing evolutionary rates and modes in multivariate phenotypes remains an important area of future development.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic Comparative Methods: A User’s Guide for Paleontologists

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Soul ◽  
David Wright
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Sources Of Uncertainty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Statistical Approaches ◽  
Evolutionary Tempo And Mode ◽  
Fossil Data ◽  
Analytical Tools

Recent advances in statistical approaches called Phylogenetic Comparative Methods (PCMs) have provided paleontologists with a powerful set of analytical tools for investigating evolutionary tempo and mode in fossil lineages. However, attempts to integrate PCMs with fossil data often present workers with practical challenges or unfamiliar literature. In this paper, we present guides to the theory behind, and application of, PCMs with fossil taxa. Based on an empirical dataset of Paleozoic crinoids, we present example analyses to illustrate common applications of PCMs to fossil data, including investigating patterns of correlated trait evolution, and macroevolutionary models of morphological change. We emphasize the importance of accounting for sources of uncertainty, and discuss how to evaluate model fit and adequacy. Finally, we discuss several promising methods for modelling heterogenous evolutionary dynamics with fossil phylogenies. Integrating phylogeny-based approaches with the fossil record provides a rigorous, quantitative perspective to understanding key patterns in the history of life.

Nominal and pronominal gender: Putting Greenberg’s Universal 43 to the test

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-574
Author(s):  
Thomas Berg
Keyword(s):  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Small Set ◽  
Pronominal Gender ◽  
Processing Difficulty

AbstractThe aim of this study is to scrutinize Greenberg’s Universal 43, which predicts pronominal gender in the presence of nominal gender. On the basis of a sample of 500 gendered and ungendered languages, gender marking is examined in nouns, personal pronouns, possessors and possessums. Ungendered languages outnumber gendered languages. Eight out of 12 logically possible gender constellations are attested in the database. In keeping with Greenberg, languages with nominal gender show a strong bias towards gendered pronouns. There is a strong correlation between gendered personal pronouns and gendered possessors. Gendered possessums are cross-linguistically uncommon. The empirical patterns are brought about by a small set of theoretical principles. Gender is independently specified for each category. Gender marking is an effort. The strength of the correlation depends on the “distance” between two given gender sites. Coding gender twice in the same time frame creates a processing difficulty. Natural and grammatical gender conspire to generate the gender sensitivity of individual categories.

scholarly journals Explaining large-scale patterns of vertebrate diversity

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 20150506 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Wiens
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ◽  
Metabolic Rates ◽  
Diversification Rates ◽  
Richness Patterns ◽  
Current Species

The major clades of vertebrates differ dramatically in their current species richness, from 2 to more than 32 000 species each, but the causes of this variation remain poorly understood. For example, a previous study noted that vertebrate clades differ in their diversification rates, but did not explain why they differ. Using a time-calibrated phylogeny and phylogenetic comparative methods, I show that most variation in diversification rates among 12 major vertebrate clades has a simple ecological explanation: predominantly terrestrial clades (i.e. birds, mammals, and lizards and snakes) have higher net diversification rates than predominantly aquatic clades (i.e. amphibians, crocodilians, turtles and all fish clades). These differences in diversification rates are then strongly related to patterns of species richness. Habitat may be more important than other potential explanations for richness patterns in vertebrates (such as climate and metabolic rates) and may also help explain patterns of species richness in many other groups of organisms.

scholarly journals Reference determination for demonstrative pronouns

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 39-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bosch ◽  
Carla Umbach
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Reading Time ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Relevant Parameter ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Demonstrative Pronouns ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Reference Determination

This paper discusses results from a corpus study of German demonstrative and personal pronouns and from a reading time experiment in which we compared the interpretation options of the two types of pronouns (Bosch et al. 2003, 2007). A careful review of exceptions to a generalisation we had been suggesting in those papers (the Subject Hypothesis: "Personal pronouns prefer subject antecedents and demonstratives prefer non-subject antecedents") shows that, although this generalisation correctly describes a tendency in the data, it is quite wrong in claiming that the grammatical role of antecedents is the relevant parameter. In the current paper we argue that the generalisation should be formulated in terms of in-formation-structural properties of referents rather than in terms of the grammatical role of antecedent expressions.  

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