Reconstructing variation in Indo-European word order (original) (raw)
Related papers
Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European word order: a treebank-based quantitative study
Word order (WO) has always been a central issue in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) syntax. Categorical approaches to WO have proved to be inadequate for the reconstruction of PIE because they postulate for the proto language a typological consistency which is absent in any of the attested daughter languages. Following recent literature, in this paper, we adopt a gradient approach to WO, which treats word order preferences, both within and across languages, as a continuous variable. To do so, we analyze four word order patterns based on data extracted from treebanks of ancient IE languages. After presenting our results for AdpN/NAdp, GN/NG, AN/NA and OV/VO, we draw a number of conclusions concerning variation within individual languages, cross-linguistic variation, and variation in diachrony. Our conclusions support the claim that variability should be taken as the normal state across languages, including reconstructed stages. Therefore, we argue that a non-discrete approach as the one allowed by our methodology has the advantage of leading to a reconstruction that better conforms to the situation known from real languages, with variation as a key feature.
Reconstructing Syntactic Variation in Proto-Indo-European (2014)
Indo-European Linguistics, 2014
This paper discusses the problem of linguistic reconstruction in the Indo-European languages with particular attention to syntax. While many scholars consider syntactic reconstruction as being in principle impossible, other scholars simply apply to syntax the same tenets of the Comparative Method and of Internal Reconstruction, which were originally used in Indo-European studies for reconstructing phonology and morphology. Accordingly, it is assumed that synchronically anomalous syntactic structures are more ancient than productive syntactic constructions; the former are considered as being residues of an early stage of Proto-Indo-European, where they were also more regular and took part in a consistent syntactic system. Various hypotheses of Proto-Indo-European as a syntactically consistent language, which in the last years have witnessed resurgence, are here discussed and criticized. We argue that syntactic consistency is nowhere attested in the Indo-European languages, which in their earliest records rather document an amazing structural variation. Accordingly, we recon
Toward a syntactic phylogeny of modern Indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European Syntax and its Development, 2013
The Parametric Comparison Method (PCM, Guardiano & Longobardi 2005, Longobardi & Guardiano 2009) is grounded on the assumption that syntactic parameters are more appropriate than other traits for use as comparanda for historical reconstruction, because they are able to provide unambiguous correspondences and objective measurements, thus guaranteeing wide-range applicability and quantitative exactness. This article discusses a set of experiments explicitly designed to evaluate the impact of parametric syntax in representing historical relatedness, and performed on a selection of 26 contemporary Indo-European varieties. The results show that PCM is in fact able to correctly identify genealogical relations even from modern languages only, performing as accurately as lexical methods, and that its effectiveness is not limited by interference effects such as ‘horizontal’ transmission. PCM is thus validated as a powerful tool for the analysis of historical relationships not only on a long-...
This paper provides evidence in support of the view put forward by Hopper (1975), Ramat (1993) and Lehmann (2007) that Proto-Germanic word order should be reconstructed as near-consistently left-branching, using Dryer's (1992) terms. On the basis of this assumption it is proposed that Ancient Germanic undergoes a typological shift in word order from a left-branching to a more right-branching type, something well observed for other branches of Indo-European such as Romance (Bauer 2006) or Greek (Fraser 1999). From a comparative and typological point of view, evidence for such a claim is provided based on empirical observation of Old Saxon word order, one of the least investigated Old Germanic languages.
Toward a syntactic phylogeny of modern Indo-European languages. Appendix
Journal of historical linguistics, 2013
& Guardiano 2009) is grounded on the assumption that syntactic parameters are more appropriate than other traits for use as comparanda for historical reconstruction, because they are able to provide unambiguous correspondences and objective measurements, thus guaranteeing wide-range applicability and quantitative exactness. This article discusses a set of experiments explicitly designed to evaluate the impact of parametric syntax in representing historical relatedness, and performed on a selection of26 contemporary Indo-European varieties. The results show that PCM is in fact able to correctly identify genealogical relations even from modern languages only, performing as accurately as lexical methods, and that its effectiveness is not limited by interference effects such as 'horizontal' transmission. PCM is thus validated as a powerful tool for the analysis of historical relationships not only on a long-range perspective (as suggested by Longobardi & Guardiano 2009), but even on more focused, though independently well-known domains.
>Toward a syntactic phylogeny of modern Indo-European languages. Appendix: The parametric database
Journal of historical linguistics, 2013
& Guardiano 2009) is grounded on the assumption that syntactic parameters are more appropriate than other traits for use as comparanda for historical reconstruction, because they are able to provide unambiguous correspondences and objective measurements, thus guaranteeing wide-range applicability and quantitative exactness. This article discusses a set of experiments explicitly designed to evaluate the impact of parametric syntax in representing historical relatedness, and performed on a selection of26 contemporary Indo-European varieties. The results show that PCM is in fact able to correctly identify genealogical relations even from modern languages only, performing as accurately as lexical methods, and that its effectiveness is not limited by interference effects such as 'horizontal' transmission. PCM is thus validated as a powerful tool for the analysis of historical relationships not only on a long-range perspective (as suggested by Longobardi & Guardiano 2009), but even on more focused, though independently well-known domains.
The origin and evolution of word order
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011
Recent work in comparative linguistics suggests that all, or almost all, attested human languages may derive from a single earlier language. If that is so, then this language-like nearly all extant languages-most likely had a basic ordering of the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O) in a declarative sentence of the type "the man (S) killed (V) the bear (O)." When one compares the distribution of the existing structural types with the putative phylogenetic tree of human languages, four conclusions may be drawn. (i) The word order in the ancestral language was SOV.
RECONSTRUCTING THE EVOLUTION OF INDO-EUROPEAN GRAMMAR
Language 97(3), 2021
This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax, which use either the comparative-historical method or implicational typology. We find that our reconstruction yields strong support for a canonical model (synthetic, nominative-accusative, headfinal) of the protolanguage and low support for any alternative model. Observing the evolutionary dynamics of features in our data set, we conclude that morphological features have slower rates of change, whereas syntactic traits change faster. Additionally, more frequent, unmarked traits in grammatical hierarchies have slower change rates when compared to less frequent, marked ones, which indicates that universal patterns of economy and frequency impact language change within the family.*
Correlated grammaticalization The rise of articles in Indo-European
Diachronica, 2022
Grammaticalization is characterized by robust directional asymmetries (e.g., Kuteva et al. 2019). For instance, body-part nominals develop into spatial adpositions, minimizers develop into negation markers, and subject pronouns become agreement markers. Changes in the opposite direction are either rare or unattested (Garrett 2012, p. 52). Such robust crosslinguistic asymmetries have led some scholars to reify grammaticalization trajectories as universal mechanistic forces (Heath 1998, p. 729). One consequence of such a view is that the ambient morphosyntax of a language has little or even no relevance for grammaticalization. This paper uses Bayesian phylogenetic methods to demonstrate the critical role that preexisting morphosyntax can play in grammaticalization. The empirical basis for this claim is the grammaticalization of definite and indefinite articles in the history of Indo-European: indefinite articles developed at a faster rate among languages in which a definite article had already emerged compared to those lacking a definite article. The two changes are thus correlated. The results of this case study suggest that there is much more to be learned about when and why grammaticalization occurs by investigating its relationship to the pre-existing linguistic system (cf. Reinöhl and Himmelmann 2017, p. 381).