E VOLUTION OF L ANGUAGE ? Bernard Comrie Max Planck Institute for - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

▶
e volution of l anguage bernard comrie
SMART_READER_LITE
LIVE PREVIEW

E VOLUTION OF L ANGUAGE ? Bernard Comrie Max Planck Institute for - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Oct 02, 2022 351 likes •975 views

W HAT D O O L INGUISTS H AVE T O O S AY A BOUT THE E VOLUTION OF L ANGUAGE ? Bernard Comrie Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and University of California, Santa Barbara comrie@eva.mpg.de A. Comparative method 1. Imperfect

slide-1
SLIDE 1

WHAT DO

O LINGUISTS HAVE TO O SAY ABOUT THE

EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE? Bernard Comrie Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and University of California, Santa Barbara comrie@eva.mpg.de

slide-2
SLIDE 2
  • A. Comparative method
slide-3
SLIDE 3
  • 1. Imperfect tense of ‘to bear, carry’ in Indo-European

Sanskrit

  • Anc. Greek

Common ancestor

SG 1

a-bhar-a-m e-pher-o-n *e-bher-o-m 2 a-bhar-a-ḥ e-pher-e-s *e-bher-e-s 3 a-bhar-a-t e-pher-e *e-bher-e-t

DU 2

a-bhar-a-tam e-pher-e-ton *e-bher-e-tom 3 a-bhar-a-tām e-pher-e-tēn *e-bher-e-tām

PL 2

a-bhar-a-ta e-pher-e-te *e-bher-e-te 3 a-bhar-a-n e-pher-o-n *e-bher-o-n Structure: Augment (*e-) – Root – Theme (e/o) – Person/Number

slide-4
SLIDE 4

Regular sound changes Ancient Greek bh > ph m > n word-finally t > Ø word-finally ā > ē after a consonant (other than r) Sanskrit e, o > a s > ḥ word-finally

slide-5
SLIDE 5
  • 2. Reconstructed consonant system of Proto-Indo-European

Stops p b bʰ t d dʰ kʸ gʸ gʸʰ k g gʰ kʷ gʷ gʷʰ Fricatives s h₁ [h] h₂ [χ] h₃ [ɣʷ] Liquids l r Nasals m n Semivowels w y

slide-6
SLIDE 6
  • B. Explaining complexity

How complex structures could have evolved from simpler structures

  • n the basis of parallels with attested changes

including plausible variations on these Uniformitarian hypothesis

slide-7
SLIDE 7

Structural complexity Does not exclude the possibility of simplification, which is also a historically observable kind of change

slide-8
SLIDE 8

Assume a species (homo sapiens sapiens) that is biologically adapted to linguistic complexity (“language-ready”) but has not yet put into practice substantial parts of this complexity

slide-9
SLIDE 9
  • C. Phonetic complexity
  • 3. Simple vowel system

i u a

slide-10
SLIDE 10

i u a high high front back unrounded rounded low unrounded

slide-11
SLIDE 11

4. i u e <a → i>

  • <a → u>

a high mid low

slide-12
SLIDE 12

5. Latin aurum ‘gold’ Spanish

  • ro
slide-13
SLIDE 13
  • 6. “Umlauted” (front rounded) vowels

ü IPA [y] <u → i> ö IPA [ø] <o → i> front rounded

slide-14
SLIDE 14
slide-15
SLIDE 15

7. Old High German jung [jʊŋɡ] ‘young’ jungiro [jʊŋɡɪrɔ] ‘younger (COMPARATIVE)’ Modern German jung [jʊŋ] jünger [jʏŋər]

slide-16
SLIDE 16
  • 8. Back unrounded vowels

ɯ <i → u> ɤ <e → o> back unrounded

slide-17
SLIDE 17
  • 9. Voicing in obstruents and sonorants

labial dental velar p t k voiceless stop s voiceless fricative m n voiced nasal l voiced liquid

slide-18
SLIDE 18

labial dental velar p t k voiceless

  • bstruent

s m n voiced sonorant l

slide-19
SLIDE 19

Voiced obstruents b <p → voiced>

slide-20
SLIDE 20

Latin sapere ‘to know’ Brazilian Portuguese saber [sa'bex] voiced stop

slide-21
SLIDE 21

Voiceless sonorants ɬ <l → voiceless>

slide-22
SLIDE 22

Welsh llan [ɬan] ‘church’ (especially in place names)

slide-23
SLIDE 23
  • 10. Other unusual consonants

Pharyngeals [ħ] unusual place of articulation Labial-velars [k͡p] co-articulation Clicks [ʘ] non-pulmonic, ingressive

slide-24
SLIDE 24
slide-25
SLIDE 25
  • 11. Dispersion

i u i u i u e

  • e
  • ɛ

ɔ a a a

slide-26
SLIDE 26
  • D. Internal reconstruction
slide-27
SLIDE 27

12. Old High German jung [jʊŋɡ] ‘young’ jungiro [jʊŋɡɪrɔ] ‘younger’ Intermediate jung [jʊŋɡ] jungiro [jʏŋɡɪrɔ] [ʊ] and [ʏ] are allophones Modern German jung [jʊŋ] jünger [jʏŋər] [ʊ] and [ʏ] are phonemes

slide-28
SLIDE 28

Morphophonological alternations, i.e. different forms of the same morpheme in different environments ([jʊŋ] ~ [jʏŋ] + [ər]), which introduce complexity,

  • ften arise historically

from regularly conditioned sound changes (e.g. vowels are fronted before [i]-like vowels) followed by loss of the conditioning environment (e.g. unstressed [ɪ] is weakened to [ə])

slide-29
SLIDE 29

“Internal reconstruction” reverse-engineers this, postulating for morphophonological alternations an earlier stage with a regular phonetic environment

slide-30
SLIDE 30

Evolving complexity Stage I no morphophonological alternations Stage II morphophonological alternations

slide-31
SLIDE 31
  • E. Complex morphology
slide-32
SLIDE 32
  • 13. Latin

‘master’ ‘table’

SG PL SG PL NOM

dominus dominī mēnsa mēnsae

VOC

domine dominī mēnsa mēnsae

ACC

dominum dominōs mēnsam mēnsās

GEN

dominī dominōrum mēnsae mēnsārum

DAT

dominō dominīs mēnsae mēnsīs

ABL

dominō dominīs mēnsā mēnsīs

slide-33
SLIDE 33

14. ‘boy’ ‘with [the] boy’ Finnish (standard) poika pojan kanssa (poja-n ‘boy-GENITIVE’) Finnish (dialectal) poika pojankā (isä ‘father’ isänkǟ) (Vowel harmony) Estonian poeg pojaga (poja-ga ‘boy-COMITATIVE’)

slide-34
SLIDE 34
  • 15. Origin of personal suffixes in Buryat

a) minii axa I.GEN younger_brother b) minii axa-mni I.GEN younger_brother-1SG c) axa-mni younger_brother-1SG

slide-35
SLIDE 35

d) bi mede-ne-b I know-PRS-1SG e) mede-ne-b know-PRS-1SG f) *bi mede-ne

slide-36
SLIDE 36

Pronoun (NOM) Verb suffix (SBJ) 1SG bi

  • b

2SG ši

  • š

1PL bide

  • bdi

2PL ta

  • t
slide-37
SLIDE 37

Pronoun (GEN) Noun suffix (POSS) 1SG minii

  • (m)ni

2SG šinii

  • š(ni)

1PL manai

  • (m)nai

2PL tanai

  • tnai
slide-38
SLIDE 38

Problem: Genitives precede their head noun and subjects precede their verb Possessive affixes follow their head noun and subject affixes follow their verb

slide-39
SLIDE 39

Khalkha g) bi med-ne I know-PRS h) med-ne bi know-PRS I

slide-40
SLIDE 40
  • F. Complexity and society
slide-41
SLIDE 41
  • 16. Latin (Horace, Odes, 1.5)
slide-42
SLIDE 42

Quis multā gracilis tē puer in rosā what many slender you boy in roses perfūsus liquidīs urget

  • dōribus

sprinkled liquid woos scents grātō, Pyrrha, sub antrō? pleasant Pyrrha in grotto

slide-43
SLIDE 43

‘What slender boy, sprinkled with liquid scents, woos you, Pyrrha, in many roses in a pleasant grotto?’

slide-44
SLIDE 44

Quis multā gracilis tē puer in rosā what many slender you boy in roses perfūsus liquidīs urget

  • dōribus

sprinkled liquid woos scents grātō, Pyrrha, sub antrō? pleasant Pyrrha in grotto

NOMINATIVE SINGULAR MASCULINE

slide-45
SLIDE 45

Quis multā gracilis tē puer in rosā what many slender you boy in roses perfūsus liquidīs urget

  • dōribus

sprinkled liquid woos scents grātō, Pyrrha, sub antrō? pleasant Pyrrha in grotto

ABLATIVE SINGULAR FEMININE

slide-46
SLIDE 46

Quis multā gracilis tē puer in rosā what many slender you boy in roses perfūsus liquidīs urget

  • dōribus

sprinkled liquid woos scents grātō, Pyrrha, sub antrō? pleasant Pyrrha in grotto

ABLATIVE PLURAL

slide-47
SLIDE 47

Quis multā gracilis tē puer in rosā what many slender you boy in roses perfūsus liquidīs urget

  • dōribus

sprinkled liquid woos scents grātō, Pyrrha, sub antrō? pleasant Pyrrha in grotto

ABLATIVE SINGULAR NEUTER

slide-48
SLIDE 48
  • 17. Guugu Yimidhirr (Northeast Queensland, Australia)

Yarragaagamun gudaa gunday biibangun. boy dog hit father

slide-49
SLIDE 49

Yarraga-aga-mu-n gudaa gunday biiba-ngun. boy-GENITIVE-mu-ERG dog.ABS hit father-ERG ‘The boy’s father hit the dog.’

ERG(ATIVE)

case for the subject/agent of a transitive verb

ABS(OLUTIVE)

case for the object/patient of a transitive verb and for the subject of an intransitive verb

slide-50
SLIDE 50

Yarraga-aga-mu-n gudaa gunday biiba-ngun. boy-GENITIVE-mu-ERG dog.ABS hit father-ERG i.e. ‘boy’ is “possessor” of ‘father’ (‘the boy’s father’)

slide-51
SLIDE 51

Yarraga-aga-mu-n gudaa gunday biiba-ngun. boy-GENITIVE-mu-ERG dog.ABS hit father-ERG i.e. ‘boy’ and ‘father’ belong together

slide-52
SLIDE 52
  • G. Development of explicitness

in written (or rather: non-face-to-face) communication Seychelles Creole

slide-53
SLIDE 53
  • 18. (1974 translation of Gospel according to Mark)

Lever, prend ou natte, marcher. ‘Rise, take your bed, walk.’

slide-54
SLIDE 54
  • 19. (1987 translation of same passage)

Lever, ranmas ou nat e marse. ‘Rise, pick_up your bed and walk.’

slide-55
SLIDE 55
  • 20. Son konteni pou fer parti tes dray imedyatman

‘Its contents will form part of drivers’ tests immediately e konsekanman bann bon drayver i a war la endispansab. and consequently potential drivers will find it indispensable.’

slide-56
SLIDE 56
  • 21. I osi regretab ki

‘It is also regrettable that kanmenm en sirkiler pour kresolizasyon lo nivo nasyonal in sorti, although a circular for creolization at the national level has been issued, i ankor annan bann batiman piblik there are still public buildings ki pa ankor koriz fot lortograf lo zot lansenny. which have not yet corrected spelling mistakes in their signs.’

slide-57
SLIDE 57
slide-58
SLIDE 58
slide-59
SLIDE 59
slide-60
SLIDE 60
slide-61
SLIDE 61

WHAT DO

O LINGUISTS HAVE TO O SAY ABOUT THE

EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE? Bernard Comrie Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and University of California, Santa Barbara comrie@eva.mpg.de