Theories and Models of Language Change Exemplary Studies - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Roland Mhlenbernd Course Information Introduction Fields Methods Theories and Models of Language Change Exemplary Studies Evolutionary Session 1: Introduction Approaches Motivation Early Model Homeworks Roland Mhlenbernd April 20,

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Theories and Models of Language Change

Session 1: Introduction Roland Mühlenbernd April 20, 2015

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Course Information

◮ Roland Mühlenbernd

Email: roland.muehlenbernd@uni-tuebingen.de Π Room 1.24 (Wilhelmstr. 19) w3 http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~roland Introduce yourself...

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Course Information

◮ Time: Tuesday 14-16 ◮ Place: Verfügungsgebäude 1.19 ◮ Tasks: regular homework (80%), final exam (60 minutes) ◮ Assessment: 3 CP (Proseminar) ◮ Web: http://www.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~roland/LC2015 ◮ ILIAS: https://ovidius.uni-tuebingen.de/ilias3/

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

What is Language Change?

The change of...

◮ sound pattern ◮ phonological systems ◮ (morpho-)syntactic

coding/structure

◮ semantic assignments ◮ pragmatic strategies ◮ linguistic forms ◮ linguistic meanings ◮ language use ◮ the structure of the

language community

◮ the expressiveness of (a)

language

◮ the linguistic faculty of

language users

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Related Fields?

The temporal development of human language(s) is topic in different disciplines in linguistics:

◮ Language Evolution ◮ Historical Linguistics ◮ Sociolinguistics

In what senses distinguish these fields from each other?

◮ the time frame ◮ the way of seeing language ◮ the methods

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Methods

What is the Scientific Method?

◮ research, data acquisition ◮ theorize ◮ test ◮ evaluate

Theory Field Work, Experiments

Comp. Model,

Simulation structure, behaviour

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Example I: Weak Tie Theory

According to Milroy and Milroy (1985), new linguistic (phonetic) variants (as a result of speaker innovation)

◮ emerges generally on so-called ‘weak ties’ ◮ spreads via ‘central’ members of the local community

Figure: The Strength of Weak Ties, Granovetter (1973)

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Example II: Self-Organization of Vowel Systems

Figure: Survey of Vowel Systems, Schwartz et al. (1997) Figure: Simulation of MAS, Jäger (2008)

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Language Evolution: Fields of Research

source: ’Language evolution: consensus and controversies’ (Christiansen & Kirby 2003)

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Motivation

◮ evolutionary models view language change as directed

processes rather than arbitrary fluctuations

◮ language change shows general pattern on a larger scale ◮ Georg von der Gabelentz (Die Sprachwissenschaft, 1891)

attributes most changes to two counteracting forces: strive for brevity and need for clarity

◮ opposed selective pressures

◮ “brevity” leads to reduced variants and overuses of the

same lexical form(s)

◮ “expressiveness” invites to move from one set of lexical

forms to another

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Spiral Model of von der Gabelenz (1891)

The change of syntactic coding in languages

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Roland Mühlenbernd Course Information Introduction

Fields Methods Exemplary Studies

Evolutionary Approaches

Motivation Early Model Homeworks

Homeworks

◮ Register on ILIAS ◮ Read the following article and solve the appropriate

exercises given on ILIAS: ‘Language change as cultural evolution: Evolutionary approaches to language change’(Rosenbach, 2008), Sections 1 - 3 (pages 23 - 31)