Loanword Typology: Verbal Borrowings Jan W OHLGEMUTH Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary...

Loanword Typology: Verbal Borrowings

Jan WOHLGEMUTHMax Planck Institute

for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

The Leipzig Loanword Typology Project

Basic goal: contribute to improving the methodology for testing hypotheses about historical relatedness between languages



Means: systematic studies of attested diachronic changes in languages worldwide: typology of language change



Means: systematic studies of attested diachronic changes in languages worldwide: typology of language change

– Paths of change– Rates of change– Degree of stability of grammatical and lexical items– Effects of language contact


Two projects in Leipzig:


Two projects in Leipzig:– Handbook of Sound Change (Juliette Blevins)


Two projects in Leipzig:– Handbook of Sound Change (Juliette Blevins)– Handbook of Lexical Borrowing (Martin

Haspelmath & Uri Tadmor)


Handbook of Lexical Borrowing (Martin Haspelmath & Uri Tadmor)

Basic questions:– What kinds of borrowings are common, what

kinds are unusual? Under what circumstances?– What is the direction of borrowing?


Degree of lexical borrowability– Which word meanings are likely to be borrowed,

and which are likely to resist borrowing?



and which are likely to resist borrowing?– Thomason & Kaufman (1988: 77):

“With a minimum of cultural pressure we expect only lexical borrowing, and then only nonbasic vocabulary.”





Borrowing of basic vocabulary starts with (3) on the borrowing scale:





Borrowing of basic vocabulary starts with (3) on the borrowing scale:

(1) Casual contact; (2) slightly more intensive contact:

(3) more intense contact; (4) strong cultural pressure:

(5) very strong cultural pressure


Degree of lexical borrowability“basic vocabulary” intentionally left undefined by

Thomason & Kaufman.



Thomason & Kaufman.

Often defined as the list of “basic” words by Swadesh.



Thomason & Kaufman.


Swadesh’s list is based on intuitions, not on any systematic research.



Thomason & Kaufman.


Swadesh’s list is based on intuitions, not on any systematic research.

Lexical borrowability needs to be studied empirically in a systematic fashion using a world-wide sample of languages,


Implementation– Study based on a fixed list of lexical meanings.



An adapted version of the 1300-word list of the Intercontinental Dictionaries Series (IDS), based on Buck 1949.




– Comparison across a wide range of languages. Over 30 languages from all continents, each covered by

one contributor, who will create a data set and a discussion chapter





one contributor, who will create a data set and a discussion chapter; e.g. Christopher Schmidt: Japanese





one contributor, who will create a data set and a discussion chapter; e.g. Christopher Schmidt: Japanese

Each data set will identify each word as borrowed or not borrowed, giving the source language if applicable.


Planned results– For each lexical meaning, the cross-linguistic

percentage of loanwords will be established. The ranking yields a list from the most resistant to the most borrowable of the ca. 1300 meanings.




– If the sample is representative, this ranking may indicate a structural universal of borrowing.




– If the sample is representative, this ranking may indicate a structural universal of borrowing.

– Influence of degree of contact as well as structural properties of the recipient languages on the types of word borrowed can be tested for.


Planned results (cont’d)– Further generalizations from the literature can be

tested, e.g.:



tested, e.g.: “The most frequent lexical items are more resistant to

[being replaced by a] borrowing than the rarer items.”




[being replaced by a] borrowing than the rarer items.” “Content words are more easily borrowed than function

words.”





words.” “Different parts of speech show different susceptibility to

borrowing (e.g. verbs are more resistant to b.)”





words.” “Different parts of speech show different susceptibility to

borrowing (e.g. verbs are more resistant to b.)”

... to what extent?

Verbal borrowings

Objective:

Verbal borrowings

Objective:– A typology of verbal borrowing patterns

Verbal borrowings

Objective:– A typology of verbal borrowing patterns– A typology of social, grammatical and lexical

parameters affecting the borrowability of verbs

Verbal borrowings

The database:

Verbal borrowings

The database:– Filemaker™Pro 7 database

Verbal borrowings

The database:– Filemaker™Pro 7 database– Currently > 120 examples from > 50 language

pairs; goal: at least 200 different language pairs from all continents

Verbal borrowings



– Incorporating typological and other meta-information for all languages involved

Verbal borrowings




– Including information on the productivity of borrowing patterns

Verbal borrowings




– Including information on the productivity of borrowing patterns

– Including information on contact situations

Verbal borrowings

Metadata collected:– Contact situation and estimated date of borrowing

Verbal borrowings

Metadata collected:– Contact situation and estimated date of borrowing– Attitude of recipient language speakers towards

borrowings

Verbal borrowings


borrowings– Productivity and frequency of loan verb

adaptation pattern(s) in the recipient language

Verbal borrowings



adaptation pattern(s) in the recipient language– Lexical status of the borrowing (insertion,

replacement, synonym)

Verbal borrowings



adaptation pattern(s) in the recipient language– Lexical status of the borrowing (insertion,

replacement, synonym)– Reliability / accuracy of the information

Verbal borrowings

Metadata collected (cont’d):– Typological information on both languages (data

from the WALS database)

Verbal borrowings

Metadata collected (cont’d):– Typological information on both languages (data

from the WALS database)– Geographical location of donor and recipient

language (from the WALS database)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns1. Direct insertion (no morphological adaptation)

Verbal borrowings


2. Indirect insertion (adaptation by affixation etc.)

Verbal borrowings



3. Light verb strategy

Verbal borrowings




4. Paradigm insertion (borrowing of verb + inflection)

Verbal borrowings




4. Paradigm insertion (borrowing of verb + inflection)

5. Other (e.g. calques)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns1.1: Direct insertion of root or infinitive-like stem

Ket < Russian

dasitaruɣavɛtda-sitat-u-k-a-bet

3SG.F.S-read-3.N.O-ABL-DUR-ACT

‘she reads it’

< читать ‘to read’

(Vajda; Werner)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns1.2: Direct insertion of inflected form

Tasawaq < Touareg (Air)

gháy yílmàqI swim.PFT

‘I swam’

< i-lmäq 3m.PFT of ëlmëq ‘to swim’

(Wichmann 2004 a,b)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns1.3: Direct insertion across word-class

Tasawaq < Touareg (Air)

ghá b-tásrìg

I IPF-sneeze

‘I am sneezing’

< tusrak ‘sneezing’

(Wichmann 2004 a,b)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns2.1: Affixation with a verbalizer

Yakut < Russian

Армияҕа сулууспалыы диэн, уонна кэлбэтэҕэ.

Armiya-GA sulu:spa-LA:-A die-An, uonna kel-BAtAχ-(t)A.army-DAT/LOC service-VR-CVB say-CVB and come-

PSTPTCP.NEG-POSS.3SG

‘He (went off) to serve in the army and didn't return.’

< служба ‘service’

(Brigitte Pakendorf, p.c.)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns2.2: Affixation with a causative/factitive

English < Jakarta Indonesian

downloadindownload-in

download-FACT

‘to download’

< download

(elicited data)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns2.3 Affixation with a special borrowing affix

Meyah < Indonesian

diebebelajardi-ebe-belajar

1SG-LW-learn

‘I'm learning’

< belajar ‘to learn’

(Gravelle)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns3.1 Light verb “do”, “make”

Modern Greek* < English (USA)

κάνει retirekani retire

do.3SG retire

‘(s)he retires’

< retire(Moravcsik 2003) *of migrants in the USA

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns3.x Other light verb

Carib < Guianese French Creole

pentiré poko manpaint busy.with 3SG.cop

‘he is painting’

< pentiré ‘to paint’

(Renault-Lescure)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns4.1 Borrowing of verb plus inflectional paradigm

Romani < Turkish

and o sxoljo ka siklos te okursun ta te jazarsunand o sxoljo ka sikl-os te okur-sun ta te jazar-sun

in ART school FUT learn-2 COMP read-2 and COMP write-2

‘in the school you will learn how to read and write’

< okurmak ‘to read’; yazmak ‘to write’

(Bakker)

Verbal borrowings

Loan verb embedding patterns5.1 Loan translation

Ket < Russian

díriŋúɣavɛtd-iriŋ-u-k-a-bet

3SG.M.S-sign-3.N.O-ABL-DUR-ACT

‘he signs it’

< Ket iriŋ ‘pattern, design, writing’

(Vajda; Werner)

Verbal borrowings

Findings so far:

Verbal borrowings

Findings so far:– Most languages have more than one loan verb

adaptation pattern

Verbal borrowings


adaptation pattern.– Different patterns used for the same pair of

languages can be an indicator for the date of the particular borrowings. (e.g. in Finnish < Swedish or Nahuatl < Spanish).

Verbal borrowings




– In these language pairs, the adaptation patterns seem to become less complex over long times of contact.

Verbal borrowings




– In these language pairs, the adaptation patterns seem to become less complex over long times of contact.

If this is a general pattern, it can be a useful key to a language’s contact history.

Verbal borrowings

Findings so far (2):Some languages (e.g. Hup) where speakers claim

they keep their language “pure” did not borrow anything apart from a few verbs that usually get heavily affixed with native morphemes.

Verbal borrowings

Findings so far (2):Some languages (e.g. Hup) where speakers claim

they keep their language “pure” did not borrow anything apart from a few verbs that usually get heavily affixed with native morphemes.

This contradicts the generalization that verbs are less likely to be borrowed than other parts of speech; it also challenges the explanation that verbs are less easily to be borrowed because of the morphology involved.

Verbal borrowings

Example contribution form

http://loanverb.linguist.de/loanverb.html

— If you have examples of verbal borrowings in whatever pair of languages, please share them with me!!

Acknowledgements

• Examples and findings used here were partly contributed by• Edward Vajda (Western Washington U)• Brigitte Pakendorf (MPI EVA)• Patience Epps (U Virginia / MPI EVA)• Søren Wichmann (MPI EVA)

• Funding:Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V.

via Max-Planck-Institute für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig

Keep on verbing…

Further Informationhttp://loanverb.linguist.de/

http://email.eva.mpg.de/~wohlgemu/

Contact:[email protected]

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