The Linguistic Cycle

Introduction

Cycles Workshop II

Tempe, AZ, 25-26 April 2014

Outline

A. Why look at Cycles?

B. Some background

C. Examples of Linguistic Cycles

D. Possible explanations

Cycles are a window on the Faculty of Language

Reanalysis shows: loss of features

Cycle or Spiral:von der Gabelentz 1901

Nun bewegt sich die Geschichte der Sprachen in der Diagonale zweier Kräfte: des Bequemlichkeitstriebes, der zur Abnutzung der Laute führt, und des Deutlichkeitstriebes, der jene Abnutzung nicht zur Zerstörung der Sprache ausarten lässt. Die Affixe verschleifen sich, verschwinden am Ende spurlos; ihre Funktionen aber oder ähnliche drängen wieder nach Ausdruck.

ctd

Diesen Ausdruck erhalten sie, nach der Methode der isolierenden Sprachen, durch Wortstellung oder verdeutlichende Wörter. Letztere unterliegen wiederum mit der Zeit dem Agglutinationsprozesse, dem Verschliffe und Schwunde, und derweile bereitet sich für das Verderbende neuer Ersatz vor ... ; immer gilt das Gleiche: die Entwicklungslinie krümmt sich zurück nach der Seite der Isolation, nicht in die alte Bahn, sondern in eine annähernd parallele. Darum vergleiche ich sie der Spirale. (von der Gabelentz 1901: 256)

The history of language moves in the diagonal of two forces: the impulse toward comfort, which leads to the wearing down of sounds, and that toward clarity, which disallows this erosion and the destruction of the language. The affixes grind themselves down, disappear without a trace; their functions or similar ones, however, require new expression.

They acquire this expression, by the method of isolating languages, through word order or clarifying words. The latter, in the course of time, undergo agglutination, erosion, and in the mean time renewal is prepared: periphrastic expressions are preferred ... always the same: the development curves back towards isolation, not in the old way, but in a parallel fashion. That's why I compare them to spirals.

Comfort + Clarity = Grammaticalization + Renewal

Von der Gabelentz’ examples of comfort: the unclear pronunciation of everyday

expressions, the use of a few words instead of a full

sentence, i.e. ellipsis (p. 182-184),“syntaktische Nachlässigkeiten aller Art”

(`syntactic carelessness of all kinds’, p. 184),

and loss of gender.

Von der G’s examples of clarity

special exertion of the speech organs (p. 183),

“Wiederholung” (`repetition’, p. 239),

periphrastic expressions (p. 239),

replacing words like sehr `very’ by more powerful and specific words such as riesig `gigantic’ and schrecklich `frightful’ (243),

using a rhetorical question instead of a regular proposition,

and replacing case with prepositions (p. 183).

Grammaticalization = one step

Hopper & Traugott 2003: content item > grammatical word > clitic > inflectional affix.

The loss in phonological content is not a necessary consequence of the loss of semantic content (see Kiparsky 2011; Kiparsky & Condoravdi 2006; Hoeksema 2009).

It can come from either phonological weakening triggering semantic strengthening or the other way round.

Renewal is the other stepIn acknowledging weakening of pronunciation (“un

affaiblissement de la pronunciation”), Meillet (1912: 139) writes that what provokes the start of the (negative) cycle is the need to speak forcefully (“le besoin de parler avec force”).

Kiparsky & Condoravdi (2006) similarly suggest pragmatic and semantic reasons. A simple negative cannot be emphatic; in order for a negative to be emphatic, it needs to be reinforced, e.g. by a minimizer.

Macrocycles and microcycles

Heine, Claudi & Hünnemeyer’s (1991: 245) distinguish different kinds of cycles: grammaticalization, changes in subparts, e.g. the TMA system, and entire language type changes. I refer to these as micro and macrocycles.

A microcyle involves just one aspect of the language, for instance, negatives or demonstratives being reinforced by adverbs, as in English those people there. They include Heine et al’s first and second kind.

Microcycles(1)a. I’m gonna leave for the summer.

b. *I’m gonna to Flagstaff for the summer.Nesselhauf (2012) identifies three features,

intention, prediction, and arrangement, in the change of shall, will, ‘ll, be going to, be to, and the progressive) in the last 250 years: as the sense of intention is lost and replaced by the sense of prediction, new markers of intention will appear:

want has intention in (4a) and it is starting to gain the sense of prediction, as in (4b).

(2)a. The final injury I want to talk about is brain damage ... (Nesselhauf 2012: 114).b. We have an overcast day today that looks like it wants to rain. (Nesselhauf 2012: 115).

Modal and degree cycles

Remus Gergel:

Modal, degree, and rather

Lukasz Jedrzejowski

Verbs to modals in succession

And degree in the DP:

Johanna Wood

such and so

MacrocyclesHodge (1971):Proto-Afroasiatic analytic *SmOld Egyptian synthetic sMLate Egyptian analytic SmCoptic synthetic sMHuang (to appear):Chinese, from moderately synthetic to

analytic to moderately synthetic.

Now on to four cycles:

Negative Cycles(Jespersen 1917, Dahl 1979, Croft 1991, van der

Auwera 2009 etc)I Indefinite phrase > negative = Jespersen’s Cycle

Negation weakens and is renewed. For instance:(1) I cannot do that >(2) I ca(n’t) see nothing

II Verb > negative(3) is-i ba-d-o Koorete

she-NOM disappear-PF-PST`She disappeared' (Binyam 2007: 7).

(4) ‘is-i dana ‘ush-u-wa-nni-koshe-NOM beer drink-PRES-not_exist-3FS-FOC‘She does (will) not drink beer.’ (Binyam 2007: 9).

Negative Cycle in Old English450-1150 CE

a. no/ne early Old English

b. ne (na wiht/not) after 900, esp S

c. (ne) not after 1350

d. not > -not/-n’t after 1400

Indefinite Negative Cycle, e.g. English, French, Arabic

XP

Spec X'

na wiht X YP

not > n’t …

Negative source is a verb

(1) wo mei you shu ChineseI not exist book`I don't have a book.’

(2) Yao Shun ji mo ... Old ChineseYao Shun since died`Since Yao and Shun died, ...' (Mengzi, Tengwengong B, from Lin 2002: 5)

(3)yu de wang ren mei kunan, ... Early Mandarinwish PRT died person not-be suffering`If you wish that the deceased one has no suffering, ...' (Dunhuang Bianwen, from Lin 2002: 5-6)

According to Lin, mei went through a perfective stage, so:

(4) dayi ye mei you chuan, jiu zou le chulai

coat even not PF wear, then walk PF out

`He didn't even put on his coat and walked out.' (Rulin Waishi, from Lin 2002: 8)

(5) NegP

Neg ASPP

mei

ASP VP

mei

V ...

mei

Three presentations on Neg Cycles

Ljuba Veselinova:

neg existential> neg

Johan vd Auwera & Frens Vossen:

word order, multiple negatives, and more

Clifton Pye: triggering the cycle

The Subject Cycle

A. demonstrative > third person pron > clitic > agreement

B. oblique/noun > first/second pron > clitic > agreement

Givón (1976, etc), Mithun (1991, etc) have provided much insight into this and we’ll hear more from them today!

Brazilian Portuguese

(1) Vossa mercê > Vosmecê > (V)ocê > cêyour favor/mercy you you-INDEF

(see Mattoso Câmara 1979; Gonçalves 1987; Dutra 1991, cited in Vitral & Ramos 2006)

(2) cê only in subject position and pre-V

English: in transition?(a) Modification, (b) coordination, (c) position, (d) doubling, (e) loss of V-movement, (f) Code switching

Coordination (and Case)(1) Me and Kitty were to spend the day.(2) %while he and she went across the hall.

Position(3) She’s very good, though I perhaps I shouldn’t say

so.(4) You maybe you've done it but have forgotten.(5) Me, I was flying economy, but the plane, … was

guzzling gas

Doubling and cliticization(1) Me, I've tucking had it with the small place.

(BNC H0M 1608)(2) %Him, he ....(3) %Her, she shouldn’t do that (not

attested in the BNC)(4) *A dog, it should be happy.

CSE-FAC:uncliticized cliticized total

I 2037 685 (=25%) 2722you 1176 162 (=12.1%) 1338he 128 19 (=12.9%) 147

Problem in English: why so slow!

Loss of V-movement and Code switching

(5) What I'm gonna do?

`What am I going to do'

(6) How she's doing?

`How is she doing‘(7) *He ging weg `he went away’ Dutch-English CS

(8) The neighbor ging weg

Subject Cycle, structurally

Full phrase moves to Spec TP >

Head moves to T

Reanalysis as to what the head is: pronoun or agreement.

(Economy: agreement =uninterpretable and then this needs an interpretable feature as well)

Copula cycle, sources

• Verbs

• Demonstratives

• Prepositions etc

Reanalysis of location, identity, and aspect features. The flavors in e.g. English are be, become, go, fall, turn, seem, appear, stay, and remain.

Indo-European > English

No difference in NP, PP predicate (but inside the paradigm:

*es (< Dem)*bheu `grow’ > Latin fui

> Old English `be, become’*wes `remain, dwell’*sta > estar (Spanish), tha (Hindi), tá (Irish)*wert ‘turn’ > vartate (Sanskrit), wairþan

(Gothic), and weorðan (OE)

Old Egyptian (1) > Middle (2)(1) a. rmt p-n

man MS-PROX `this man.’

b. ntr-w jp-w

god-P MP-DIST `those gods.’

(2) ̩tmj-t pw jmn-t

city-F be west-F

`The West is a city.’

(Loprieno 1995; 2001)

(3) p -w > pw

[i-3MS] [distal] [loc]

[u-phi]

Identification/classification vs location

Saramaccanequative – locativeidentificational da dɛclass membership da/dɛ(McWhorter 2005: 117-8; 171)

NigerianPidginbe/na - de(Mazzoli 2013: 91)

Demonstrative and adverbial source of copulas

(1) a. Mi da i tatá Saramaccan I am your father

‘I am your father.’ (McWhorter 1997: 87)

b. Hεn dà dí Gaamá

he is the chief

‘He's the chief.’ (McWhorter 1997: 98)

(2) Dí wómi dε a wósu

the woman is at house

`The woman is at home.’ (McWhorter 1997: 88)

Demonstrative to article cycle

(1) demonstrative/adverb > definite article > Case/non-generic > class marker > 0

(2) gife to … þa munecas of þe mynstregive to … the monks of the abbey

(Peterborough Chron. 656)

(3) * the

Demonstratives, pronouns, and pro-drop in Old English

(1) þæt fram ham gefrægn Higelaces þegn, god mid Geatum, Grendles dæda; se wæs moncynnes mægenes strengest on þæm dæge þysses lifes, æþele ond eacen.

`Hygelac’s thane heard about Grendel’s deeds while in Geatland; he (=Hygelac’s thane) was mankind’s strongest man on earth, noble and powerful.

Old English ctdHet him yðlidan godne gegyrwan, cwæð, he

guðcyning ofer swanrade secean wolde, mærne þeoden, þa him wæs manna þearf. ðone siðfæt him snotere ceorlas lythwon logon, þeah he him leof wære.

(He) ordered himself a good boat prepared and said that he wanted to seek the king over the sea since he (=the king) needed men. Wise men did not stop him (=Hygelac’s thane) though he was dear to them.’ (Beowulf 194-98)

Around 1200: a reanalysis(1) & gaddresst swa þe clene corn

`and so you gather the clear wheat.’ (Ormulum 1484-5, Holt edition)

(2) 3ho wass … Elysabæþ 3ehatenn `She was called Elisabeth.’ (Ormulum 115)

(3) & swa þe33 leddenn heore lif Till þatt te33 wærenn alde `and so they led their lives until they were old.’ (Ormulum 125-6)

(4) þin forrme win iss swiþe god, þin lattre win iss bettre. `Your earlier wine is very good, your later wine is better.’ (Ormulum 15409)

Reduction of the article and renewal

(3) Morret's brother came out of Scoteland for th'acceptacion of the peax

(The Diary of Edward VI, 1550s)

(4) Oh they used to be ever so funny houses you know and in them days … They used to have big windows, but they used to a all be them there little tiny ones like that. (BNC - FYD 72)

What happens?

Externally: a `strengthening’ of the third person features in the pronoun and a shift in the relationship with the demonstrative.

This reinforcement through external pronouns, she and they, brought about a reanalysis of the features of the pronoun as deictic.

Demonstrative

[i-phi]/ [i-loc]

 article Dem C copula

[u-phi] [i-phi] [u/i-T] [u-phi]

[i-loc] [i-loc]

Also: degree adverb and tense marker (Tibeto-Burman)

Feature Economy:

Utilize semantic features: use them as for functional categories, i.e. as formal features.

Generative Grammar of the1990s-2013

Parameters consist of choices of feature specifications as the child acquires a lexicon (Chomsky 2004; 2007).

Baker, while disagreeing with this view of parameters, calls this the Borer-Chomsky-Conjecture (2008: 156):

"All parameters of variation are attributable to differences in the features of particular items (e.g., the functional heads) in the lexicon."

The importance of features

Chomsky (1965: 87-88): lexicon contains information for the phonological, semantic, and syntactic component.

Sincerity +N, -Count, +Abstract...)

Chomsky (1995: 230ff; 236; 277ff):

semantic (e.g. abstract object),

phonological (e.g. the sounds),

and formal features:

intrinsic or optional.

Semantic and formal overlap:Chomsky (1995: 230; 381) suggests: "formal

features have semantic correlates and reflect semantic properties (accusative Case and transitivity, for example)."

I interpret this: If a language has nouns with semantic phi-features, the learner will be able to hypothesize uninterpretable features on another F (and will be able to bundle them there).

SummaryCycle – Spiral

Micro-Macro Cycles

Four examples

Explanation in terms of features but many others as we’ll see next!