Sociogeographic correlates of typological variation in northwestern Bantu gender systems

This paper investigates the sociolinguistic factors that impact the typology and evolution of grammatical gender systems in northwestern Bantu, the most diverse area of the Bantu-speaking world. We base our analyses on a typological classification of 179 northwestern Bantu languages, focusing on various instances of semantic agreement and their role in the erosion of gender marking. In addition, we conduct in-depth analyses of the sociolinguistics and population history of the 17 languages of the sample with the most eroded gender systems. The sociohistorical factors identified to explain these highly eroded systems are then translated into a set of explanatory variables, which we use to conduct extensive quantitative analyses on the 179 language sample. These variables are population size, longitude, latitude, relationship with the Central African rainforest, and border with Ubangi/Central Sudanic languages. All these measures are relevant, with population size and bordering with Ubangi/Central Sudanic being the most robust factors in accounting for the distribution of gender restructuring. We conclude that fine-tuned variable design tailored to language and area-specific ecologies is crucial to the advancement of quantitative sociolinguistic typology.

A chain shift in Indo-Aryan, with special reference to Gujarati dialects

This paper explores a possible chain shift in Gujarati dialects, involving the consonants k, kh, c, ch, s, ś, h, ḥ, V̤, and ∅ (where ś denotes IPA [ʃ], ḥ voiceless [h], V̤ a murmured vowel, and ∅ “zero”). The chain shift can be discerned by comparing the colloquial forms in the regional dialects with the standard Gujarati forms and those of Central Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi. This comparison yields the following correspondences, giving the standard and Central Indo-Aryan sounds first: k, kh = c, ch; c, ch = s or ś; s = ḥ; h = V̤ or ∅. The paper demonstrates that this set of correspondences between standard Gujarati and the dialects is a large one, and that it indeed suggests a chain shift, taken up differentially in the various dialects analyzed (Kathiawadi, Surti, Charotari, and Pattani). For the chain shift, the standard is firmly in the Central Indo-Aryan camp, while the dialects analyzed align more closely with Western Indo-Aryan.

Language change in multidimensional space

Linguistic coherence—the co-variation of language variants within speaker repertoires—has been proposed as a key process driving the divergence of language dialects. Previous studies on coherence have been often limited by dataset sizes and analyses. We analyze the use of 185 variables across 78 speakers from the Gurindji community in Australia. We use two multivariate statistical approaches to test whether clusters of variables co-vary with generation, family, household, exposure to Gurindji language speakers and education. Using Discriminant Correspondence Analysis, we find generation is the strongest grouping factor of speakers and co-varies with clusters of variants. Using the Generalized Linear Mixed Model, we find these clusters of variants not only represent a gradual loss of Gurindji language use across generations, but also contribute to distinct patterns of language usage in the different generations. Our study demonstrates the use of multivariate analyses on big datasets to identify sociolects, an important step in linking the ‘micro-level’ processes to the ‘macro-level’ outcomes.

How long is ‘a long term’ for sound change?

This paper investigates the adoption of ongoing community sound change by individuals by considering it as an instance of second-dialect acquisition. Four ongoing changes in Dutch, all involving the move from one-allophone to two-allophone systems, make this possible: these ongoing diachronic changes are simultaneously a source of synchronic variation between Netherlandic Dutch and Flemish Dutch. The paper investigates the adoption of these differences by sociolinguistic migrants: Flemish-Dutch speakers who migrated to the Netherlands to start their university studies. Participants were tracked over the course of nine months, using a rhyme-decision task and a word-list-reading task. Results show robust differences from Netherlandic-Dutch controls, which do not diminish over the nine months. While longer-term accommodation to these same changes has been found elsewhere, it appears that nine months is not enough time. The implications of these findings for various subfields of linguistics, particularly sound change and second-dialect acquisition, are discussed.

From order to approval

The article discusses the development of the Hebrew polysemous construction bɛsɛdɛr (the prefixed preposition bɛ ‘in’ + the noun sɛdɛr ‘order’). An analysis within the framework of Construction Grammar (Traugott & Trousdale, 2013) as well as tendencies of (inter)subjectification (Traugott, 2010, 2012) suggest that the construction developed through fusion and host-class expansion from an objective meaning of concrete and abstract order into an adverb, and later into a fully substantive lexical construction conveying subjective positive evaluation and to an intersubjectified discourse function expressing agreement and approval. The article further supports the proposal that both processes of grammatical and lexical constructionalization are evident in the constructionalization of beseder. Moreover, the analysis suggests that the different meanings which developed are interrelated, as they all derive from the original concept of order and organization, which at some point began to be desirable and appreciated, leading eventually to the development of discourse functions of approval and consent.

Numeral classifiers and number marking in Indo-Iranian

This paper investigates the origins of sortal numeral classifiers in the Indo-Iranian languages. While these are often assumed to result from contact with non-Indo-European languages, an alternative possibility is that classifiers developed as a response to the rise of optional plural marking. This alternative is in line with the so-called Greenberg-Sanches-Slobin (henceforth GSS) generalization. The GSS generalization holds that the presence of sortal numeral classifiers across languages is negatively correlated with obligatory plural marking on nouns. We assess the extent to which Indo-Iranian classifier development is influenced by loosening of restrictions on plural marking using a sample of 65 languages and a Bayesian phylogenetic model, inferring posterior distributions over evolutionary transition rates between typological states and using these rates to reconstruct the history of classifiers and number marking throughout Indo-Iranian, constrained by historically attested states. We find broad support for a diachronically oriented construal of the GSS generalization, but find no evidence for a strong bias against the synchronic co-occurrence of classifiers and obligatory plural marking. Inspection of the most likely diachronic trajectories in individual lineages in the tree shows a stronger effect of the GSS among Iranian languages than Indo-Aryan languages. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that the association of classifiers and optional number marking in Indo-Iranian is neither solely the effect of universal mechanisms nor of the contingency of local contact histories.

Iconicity and interpretability in language emergence

The iconic potential of sign languages suggests that the establishment of a conventionalized set of form-meaning pairings should be relatively easy. However, even an iconic form has to be interpreted correctly for it to conventionalize. In sign languages, spatial modulations are used to indicate real spatial relationships (locative) and grammatical relations. The former is a more-or-less direct representation of how things are situated with respect to each other. Grammatical space, in contrast, is more abstract. As such, the former would seem to be more interpretable than the latter, and so on the face of it, should be more likely to conventionalize in a new sign language. But in at least one emerging sign language the grammatical use of space is conventionalizing first. We argue that this is due to the grammatical use of space being easier to understand correctly, using data from four experiments investigating hearing non-signers interpretation of spatially modulated gestures.

Empirical foundations for an integrated study of language evolution

Half a century ago, Uriel Weinreich, William Labov, and Marvin Herzog laid out a programmatic vision for the study of language change. This included establishing five fundamental problems for the field and a radical shift from a focus on idiolects to a focus on population-level change (grounded in their concept of orderly heterogeneity). They also expressed an explicit desire to see an integrated evolutionary study of language change. In spite of this, the newer fields of language evolution and cultural evolution make little contact with the field of sociolinguistics that emerged out of their work. Here we lay out a program, grounded in their five problems, for a more integrated future. We situate each problem in modern sociolinguistics and identify promising points for theoretical exchange, making comparisons with Tinbergen’s four questions, which play a similar role in the evolutionary sciences. Finally, we propose cultural-evolutionary experiments for making empirical progress.

An agent-based model of sign language persistence informed by real-world data

As evidence from sign languages is increasingly used to investigate the process of language emergence and evolution, it is important to understand the conditions that allow for sign languages to persist. We build on a mathematical model of sign language persistence (i.e. protection from loss) which takes into account the genetic transmission of deafness, the cultural transmission of sign language and marital patterns (Aoki & Feldman, 1991). We use agent-based modeling techniques and draw inspiration from the wealth of genetic and cultural data on the sign language Kata Kolok to move towards a less abstract model of sign language persistence. In a set of experiments we explore how sign language persistence is affected by language transmission types, the distribution of deaf alleles, population size and marital patterns. We highlight the value of using agent-based modeling for this type of research, which allows for the incorporation of real-world data into model development.