Search

Some verbs in Romance (e.g. the reflexes of faciō 'do', dīcō 'say', habeō 'have', sapiō 'know', possum 'be able', and volō 'want') display alternations between a short (e.g. It. f-are, f-a, d-ire) and a long (e.g. It. fac-evo, dic-e, dic-evo) stem. This paper contains an exploration of the lexical and paradigmatic distribution of these stem alternations across Romance varieties to trace when they emerged, how, and why. The results suggest a comparatively early emergence as a result of the interaction between preexisting morphological predictability relations within the paradigm and an evolutionary preference for shorter forms in high-frequency word forms and lexemes.

Since the advent of phylogenetic linguistics, researchers have used a large number of phylogenetic comparative methods adapted from computational biology to model and analyze the dynamics of change of a wide range of linguistic features. Models of this sort vary in complexity; the simplest models of change assume homogeneity of transition rates within families, while state-of-the-art models of heterotachy allow transition rates to vary across lineages within a family. In this contribution, I review a range of applications of biological models of rate variation to questions in diachronic linguistics and highlight some models from computational biology that have remained largely overlooked by linguists.Building off of these and other biological models, I sketch out a program for what I term DISTRIBUTIONAL PHYLOGENETIC MODELING, inspired by an analogousrecently proposed family of hierarchical Bayesian models. I report the results of some work in progress carried out within this framework and present a casestudy illustrating the flexibility of the approach.

This paper analyzes the temporal dynamics of the leveling of vocalic and consonantal patterns of allomorphy in Middle and Early New High German. Bayesian modeling is employed to establish reliable relative chronologies between analogical changes affecting different parts of the verbal system. While clear chronologies cannot be established for all change types, results robustly indicate that changes in past tense form of certain verbs precede changes in present tense forms. This finding is compatible with a view where paradigmatic heterogeneity inhibits simplification processes even when its locus is outside of the area targeted by change.

The chapter looks at language variation and change, and the relation of these processes to language reconstruction and classification. The chapter gives an overview of theories, models, methods, and data, describing how diversity and variation is modelled and measured for reconstruction and classification within traditional, comparative and statistical, evolutionary, or phylogenetic methods. First, the chapter identifies the basic principles of language change and the way in which these differ within various subdomains of language. A second part delves into the outcomes of change, describing the diverse results of sound change, lexical change, and typological/morphosyntactic change. Here, important aspects include the inherent propensity of change, the role of arbitrariness, the role of systems, horizontal transfer, and the outcome of change at macro-levels. Finally, the chapter deals with the issue of the ontological status of the reconstruction, and how various theoretical approaches may affect the interpretation of results. The chapter reviews results and controversies arising from current research.

The cross-linguistic under-representation of adjacent consonants sharing a place of articulation within uninflected lexical items is well documented. At the same time, little is known regarding the specific diachronic mechanisms involved in the emergence and maintenance of this pattern. Phylogenetic analyses provide some support for the idea that adjacent identical consonants within words arise infrequently, but stronger support for the idea that words containing such a pattern die out more frequently than those without. I highlight the value of tools used in this paper for exploring the evolution of sound patterns, and also discuss some limitations of the implementation used in the paper to be improved upon.

Nominal classification systems such as grammatical gender (e.g., the masculine/feminine distinction in French) and noun classes (e.g., Bantu noun classes based on fruits, plants, liquids, among others) provide a window on how the human brain perceives and categorizes objects and experiences it encounters. While the diachronic development of grammatical gender systems is well studied, noun class systems have received less attention. We use phylogenetic comparative methods to analyze where noun classes are marked (on nouns, pronouns, demonstratives, articles, adjectives, numbers, and verbs) in thirty-six Atlantic languages and how these markers change diachronically. Our results show that noun class marking is generally preferred and more stable within the noun phrase, i.e., on nouns, demonstratives, and adjectives.

Romance verb stem alternations (e.g., Spanish tengo `I have' vs. tienes `you have') constitute seemingly unnecessary but highly inheritable morphological traits. Using novel phylogenetic methods, we assess the impact of frequency and alternation patterns on properties of their evolution, specifically on the speed of change and the long term preference for pattern types within lemmata. We find credible differences in long-term trends between alternation patterns, and confirm the notion that frequency drives the maintenance of irregular patterns. However, our model reveals no or only weak effects of either predictor on the speed of change. Our findings call for modeling the multiple dimensions of language change jointly but with distinct parameters for speed (or rates) of change and long-term preferences.