2019
Workshop on Variation and Change in the Verb Phrase
The Language Change Research Group organizes a two-day workshop on Variation and Change in the Verb Phrase, 5-6 December 2019. All are welcome to come and listen to one or more of the talks!
Time and place: Dec. 5, 2019 9:00 AM–Dec. 6, 2019 1:00 PM, Niels Trechows hus, 12th floor
The Language Change Research Group organizes the two-day workshop Variation and Change in the Verb Phrase. The focus of this workshop is on syntactic change in the verbal domain, ranging from changes at earlier language stages to recent and ongoing changes in typologically different languages. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together researchers who work on verbal syntax from a historical perspective from different theoretical orientations.
Keynote Speakers
- Elena Anagnostopoulou (University of Crete)
- Peter Petré (University of Antwerp)
Datives, Genitives and passives in the history of Greek
Elena Anagnostopoulou, University of Crete. Joint work with Christina Sevdali, Ulster University.
In this talk, I will compare the properties of dative and genitive objects in Classical vs. Modern Greek. Based on the difference in behavior of dative/genitive objects of ditransitives and monadic transitives in the two periods of Greek which correlates with a range of systematic alternations in the case realization of Modern Greek IO arguments depending on the presence and category (DP vs. PP) of lower theme arguments, I will argue that there are two distinct modes of dative and genitive objective case assignment: they are either prepositional or dependent (structural) cases, as also proposed by Baker & Vinokurova (2010), and Baker (2015) on the basis of cross-linguistic evidence. If we adopt this proposal a number of important implications follow both for the syntax of Modern Greek genitive indirect objects and for the understanding of the change from Classical to Standard Modern Greek which must be seen as a development from a grammatical system where dative and genitive were lexical/inherent/prepositional cases to a system where genitive is a dependent case assigned to DPs in the sense of Marantz (1991). Interestingly, the development from Classical Greek (CG) to Modern Greek (MG) affected the availability of dative/genitive-nominative alternations in passivization, in the opposite direction of what might be expected, i.e. such alternations were possible in CG and are no longer possible in MG. I will address this puzzle and will argue that the availability of such alternations is not always a diagnostic tool for detecting whether an indirect object DP bears lexically specified or structural/dependent Case, contra standard practice in the literature. In the final part of the talk, I will attempt to identify and critically discuss some key stages in the development from the Classical Greek to the Modern Greek system.
Many people’s grammars, nobody’s grammar. Grammaticalization of auxiliary constructions as emergent in the community
Peter Petré (University of Antwerp)
Starting from the assumption that language is a complex adaptive system, I show how macroproperties of grammaticalizing constructions are an unintended effect of intentional individual interactions. I will look at three developments in 17th and 18th century English as represented in 50 prolific writers (brought together in the EMMA-corpus): (i) the extension of 'be going to' to mark imminent future; (ii) the emergence of a copular function of 'get' (as in 'he got angry'); (iii) the increasing productivity of prepositional passives. For each of these I will present evidence that individuals continue to innovate/adopt innovations beyond adolescence, but do so in different ways, depending on, among other things, their age and community of practice. These different shades of adopting innovations lead to a higher degree of variation, which in turn prepares the construction for a further leap in the grammaticalization process taken by later-born individuals.
Contact
karin.beijering@iln.uio.no
Seminar: Åshild Næss on how to grow grammatical relations
Professor Åshild Næss presents ongoing research on the emergence of grammatical relations in Austronesian languages.
Time and place: Nov. 21, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
As our fourth speaker at the Language Change Seminar this term, we are delighted to introduce Professor Åshild Næss (ILN). Abstract below - all are welcome!
How to grow grammatical relations: modelling the transition from symmetrical voice to subject-object structure in Austronesian
The Austronesian language family is characterised by a great range of variation in morphosyntactic typology. In particular, Western Austronesian languages tend to show so-called symmetrical voice systems, which are characterised by showing no default association between 'subject' and 'agent'; and indeed what, if anything, counts as the subject in such languages has been heavily debated (e.g. Schachter 1976, 1977, Kroeger 1993, Riesberg 2014). Moreover, it has been argued that transitivity is not a relevant analytical category in such languages (Himmelmann 2005).
In contrast to this, the Oceanic branch of Austronesian shows a clear grammatical distinction between subject and object arguments, where subject function is associated with agent role, and clausal patterns organised around differences in transitivity (Lynch, Ross and Crowley 2002: 49-50). From what is known about the history of Austronesian, the latter system has developed out of some version of the former. This situation provides a window into how grammatical relations may grammaticalise out of more pragmatically based systems.
In this talk, I will present an ongoing research project aimed at understanding the processes by which the Oceanic grammatical relations have developed out of a Western Austronesian-style symmetrical voice system. I will present the initial models and hypotheses of the project, as well as preliminary results from a subpart of the project focusing on the small Reefs-Santa Cruz group of languages spoken in eastern Solomon Islands.
References
- Himmelmann, Nikolaus. P. 2005. Typological characteristics. In A. Adelaar and N. P. Himmelmann (eds.), The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar, 110-182. London/New York: Routledge.
- Kroeger, Paul. 1993. Phrase structure and grammatical relations in Tagalog. Stanford: CSLI.
- Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross, and Terry Crowley. 2002. The Oceanic languages. Richmond: Curzon.
- Riesberg, Sonja. 2014. Symmetrical voice and linking in Western Austronesian languages. Boston/Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
- Schachter, Paul. 1976. The subject in Philippine languages: actor, topic, actor-topic, or none of the above? In Charles Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 491-518. New York: Academic Press.
- Schachter, Paul. 1977. Reference-related and role-related properties of subjects. In Peter Cole and Jerrold Sadock (eds.), Syntax and Semantics 8: Grammatical relations, 279-306. New York: Academic Press.
Seminar: Fredrik Valdeson on The double object construction and prepositional object constructions in Late Modern Swedish
Fredrik Valdeson (Stockholm University) will give a talk on the double object construction and prepositional object constructions in Late Modern Swedish.
Time and place: Nov. 7, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HWH536
We are delighted to announce the third Language Change Seminar of this semester.
The double object construction and prepositional object constructions in Late Modern Swedish
Fredrik Valdeson (Stockholm University)
The Swedish double object construction can be used with verbs pertaining to different semantic categories, including transfer (1), communication (2–3) and creation (4).
(1) Han hade skickat henne ett brev och en dikt.
‘He had sent her a letter and a poem.’
(2) Han ville säga henne ett par ord.
‘He wanted to say her a few words.’
(3) Hon visade mig några bilder.
‘She showed me a few pictures.’
(4) Vi får sy dig en klänning …
‘We’ll have to sew you a new dress.’
Furthermore, the Swedish double object construction alternates with several different prepositional object constructions, with the prepositions till ‘to’, åt ‘to, towards’ or för ‘for’. In present-day Swedish, till is the main alternative with verbs of transfer and certain verbs of communication (5–6) while åt is used as an alternative for verbs of creation (8). The preposition för is primarily used with the communication verb visa ‘show’ (7).
(5) Hon skickade ett otäckt brev till mig.
‘She sent a nasty letter to me.’
(6) Och han har inte sagt ett enda ord till Anna.
‘And he hasn’t said a single word to Anna.’
(7) Jag visade bilderna för en antikvitetshandlare …
‘I showed the pictures to an antique dealer.’
(8) Jag tror att det skulle vara en god idé om vi tog och sydde ett par klänningar åt
dig …
‘I think that it would be a good idea if we sewed a few dresses for you.’
During the seminar, I will talk about my PhD thesis (scheduled to be finished in 2021), which takes a diachronic view on the Swedish double object construction (DOC) and its semantic relations to the three prepositional object constructions (POC’s) with till, åt and för. The study draws on corpus data from 19th and 20th century novels as well as modern blog texts, in total covering a time span from 1800 to 2016.
The results indicate that the use of the double object construction has decreased over the course of the last two centuries, in terms of both type frequency and token frequency. This process is accompanied by a decrease in the semantic range of the construction. Comparing the DOC to the POC’s, we find that the till-POC has replaced the åt-POC as the main constructional alternative to the DOC. In the 19th century data, there is also a greater variety of verbs alternating between the DOC and the för-POC (e.g. berätta ‘tell’). In present-day Swedish, most of these verbs are used only in the för-POC. The general tendency is thus that the DOC becomes semantically less similar to the åt-POC and the för-POC and increasingly similar to the till-POC while at the same time decreasing in use overall.
Seminar: Patrick Mächler on Verbal morphology in Elfdalian
Patrick Mächler (University of Zurich) presents his research on resilience and loss of isolated features in Elfdalian verbal morphology.
Time and place: Oct. 24, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HWH536
We are delighted to announce the second Language Change Seminar of this semester.
Patrick Mächler (University of Zurich) will give a talk entitled: Verbal morphology in Elfdalian: resilience and loss of isolated features
Seminar: Kari Kinn on Pragmaticalised determiners in American Norwegian
Kari Kinn (ILN) will give a talk entitled Pragmaticalised determiners in American Norwegian.
Time and place: Sep. 19, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, PAM252
We are delighted to announce the first Language Change Seminar of this semester.
Seminar: Kristin Bech on attributive adjectives in Old English
Kristin Bech (ILOS) presents work from the ongoing project “Constraints on syntactic variation: noun phrases in old Germanic languages”
Time and place: Apr. 25, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
We are delighted to announce the fourth Language Change Seminar of this semester.
Attributive adjectives in Old English (with occasional sideglances at some other old Germanic languages)
This talk reports on some work in the ongoing project "Constraints on syntactic variation: noun phrases in old Germanic languages". I first present the project and some basic data, before going on to talk about attributive adjectives in Old English. I will show that almost all postnominal adjectives in Old English can be accounted for by applying a reductive method. I then turn to adjectival present participles and the relation between the structure of the noun phrase in the Latin original text and the Old English translation.
Seminar: Hans-Olav Enger on the loss of inflection in Norwegian adjectives
Professor Hans-Olav Enger (ILN) presents a diachronic account of the loss of inflection in Norwegian adjectives.
Time and place: Mar. 21, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
We are delighted to announce the third Language Change Seminar of this semester. Professor Hans-Olav Enger (ILN) will present joint work with Helen Sims-Williams (Surrey Morphology Group) in a talk entitled:
“Norske adjektiver er ikke så enkle som de engang var (iallfall ikke på alle måter)”
This talk will be in Norwegian – see the abstract below for more details.
Seminar: Taraka Rama on Bayesian methods for historical linguistics
We are delighted to announce the second Language Change Seminar of this semester. Taraka Rama Kasicheyanula (Postdoctoral Fellow at IFI) will give a talk entitled Bayesian methods for historical linguistics. All are welcome!
Time and place: Feb. 14, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, PAM252
Rama Kasicheyanula’s abstract
“I will talk about the application of Bayesian methods for three highly interrelated tasks: identifying the right data size for making phylogenetic inferences, automated cognate detection, and phylogenetic inference itself. These are three crucial steps in the pipeline of computational historical linguistics, a vibrant and relatively recent field of research which has prospects of automating parts of, if not completely, an age-old tradition of manually constructing family trees through the laborious identification of shared innovations.
The first problem is to determine the right size of the meaning list required for inferring high quality trees. Recently published results show that Bayesian phylogenetic inference does not necessarily benefit from being given all available data as input and that there is a surprisingly solid linear correlation between the number of languages to be classified and the size of the most adequate dataset. This finding is particularly important when designing meaning lists for language families which do not have long tradition of classical comparative linguistic research.
Next, given word lists for a set of languages to be classified, the researcher must determine which words are cognate, i.e., share a common origin, and which not. This should be achieved in an automated way, and much current research is devoted to devising suitable algorithms for this task. My contribution to this highly competitive field of research has been to design two variants of the Chinese Restaurant Process (CRP). I show that the CRP variants work as well as InfoMap (the currently best known clustering algorithm) when applying two different cluster evaluation measures.
Finally, when it comes to producing the actual phylogenetic trees it is necessary to evaluate the utility of automated cognate identification techniques for inferring such phylogenies. The results of these techniques should be evaluated against cognate judgments done by experts. As it turns out, cognates inferred from automated cognate identification methods can, indeed, be used to infer high quality phylogenies.”
Seminar: George Walkden on parataxis vs. hypotaxis
Professor George Walkden (University of Konstanz) addresses the claim that parataxis precedes hypotaxis from a generative perspective.
Time and place: Jan. 15, 2019 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
We are delighted to announce the first Language Change Seminar this semester, where Professor George Walkden (University of Konstanz) gives a talk entitled Proto-Indo-European: a language without Merge? All are welcome!
Walkden's abstract
"The claim that parataxis precedes hypotaxis in language is often found in the traditional literature on language change (e.g. Delbrück 1900: 411; Small 1924: 125) and reiterated in works with a functionalist orientation (e.g. Jucker 1991: 203; Deutscher 2001: ch. 11; Dąbrowska 2015: 230). However, it has rarely been addressed from a generative perspective (cf. Roberts 2007: 174 for a brief but notable exception). Doing so is important, since a strong form of this claim is that early languages lacked embedding (Delbrück 1900: 411), which relates to the recent debate around Pirahã exceptionality and its implications for the architecture of grammar (Everett 2005; Nevins, Pesetsky & Rodrigues 2009 and subsequent work). Moreover, the evidence usually offered in support of the claim is flimsy at best.
In this talk I argue that the traditional claim must be broken down into a number of distinct subclaims, only one of which threatens a standard Minimalist conception of the human faculty of language. I show that that particular subclaim is false, as far as the historical evidence allows us to establish. I then present empirical evidence from large-scale diachronic corpus studies that bears on other subclaims, which – I argue – have important implications for comparative syntax nonetheless."
2018
Seminar: Ida Larsson on variation and change in the Scandinavian verb phrase
Professor Ida Larsson (ILN) is our final speaker this autumn.
Time and place: Nov. 26, 2018 3:15 PM–Nov. 16, 2018 5:00 PM, HW 536
Professor Ida Larsson (ILN) leads the project Variation and Change in the Scandinavian Verb Phrase, she will present ongoing work on the order between objects and verbal particles. Abstract below:
Variation and Change in the Scandinavian Verb Phrase: on the order between objects and verbal particles
The Mainland Scandinavian languages generally show the same word order patterns, with the order between objects and verbal particles as one interesting exception. Whereas Danish only allows the order object–particle, Swedish only accepts the order particle–object, and Norwegian allows both orders. Old Danish and Old Swedish are like Norwegian (Old Norse and Icelandic), but have developed in different ways. In this talk, I trace the development in Danish and Swedish, and point to possible explanations to the divergence. Since the Mainland Scandinavian languages are otherwise so similar (both with respect to syntax and socio-historical factors), the study of the different diachronic developments in Danish and Swedish, and the stability in Norwegian, can shed light on how general linguistic principles and language-specific properties interact in linguistic change.
Seminar: Brita Ramsevik Riksem on language mixing and language change in American Norwegian
Brita Ramsevik Riksem (NTNU) is our third speaker this autumn.
Time and place: Nov. 20, 2018 4:15 PM–6:00 PM, HW536
Sunburg, Minnesota. Photo: Janne Bondi Johannessen
Brita Ramsevik Riksem is an assistant professor at NTNU (Trondheim). In her talk, entitled Language mixing as evidence of language change in American Norwegian, she discusses the Norwegian language spoken in the US from a diachronic perspective. The seminar is followed by snacks and refreshments.
Seminar: Erik M. Petzell on morphosyntactic variation and change in Viskadalian Swedish
Petzell discusses the Rich Agreement Hypothesis (RAH) in the context of data from Viskadalian Swedish.
Time and place: Oct. 25, 2018 3:15 PM–4:30 PM, PAM 1
Erik Magnusson Petzell (Institutet för språk och folkminnen, Gothenburg) is the second speaker in the seminar series on language change this autumn. His talk is entitled Morphosyntactic variation and change in Viskadalian Swedish. The seminar is is followed by snacks and refreshments – everyone is welcome!
Petzell's abstract
In my talk, I address the alleged correlation between agreement inflection on finite verbs and verb movement to the I-domain known as the Rich Agreement Hypothesis (RAH). A decade ago, many considered the RAH to be dead (Bentzen et al. 2007). However, in recent years, it has been revitialised. In 2014, Koeneman & Zeijlstra reviewed and rejeceted all previous counter-examples. In 2017, Tvica conducted the most thorough RAH-test to date (in a typologically balanced sample of 24 languages), failing to falsify the hypothesis. In my talk, the empirical focus is on the varying morphosyntax of 20th century Viskadalian Swedish. Viskadalian verbs are inflected for both person and number, which should (given the RAH) trigger V-to-I. Still, it is only in the central parts of the Viskadalian dialect area (CV) that V-to-I occurs; in the south (SV), V must remain in situ (in VP). This lack of V-to-I in SV certainly appears to falsify the RAH. I argue, however, that the difference regarding V-to-I follows from SV and CV agreement being categorically different. Although both are semantically rich, only CV agreement is morphologically distinct, crucially triggering V-to-I. By contrast, in SV, agreement has been reanalysed either as embedded under tense or as part of the pronominal system. Both reanalyses can be described as instances of syntactic grammaticalisation in the sense of Roberts & Roussou (1999, 2003).
- Bentzen, Kristine, Gunnar Hrafn Hrafnbjargarson, Thorbjörg Hróarsdóttir, and Anna-Lena Wiklund. 2007. “Rethinking Scandinavian verb movement.” Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 10: 203–233.
- Koeneman Olaf & Hedde Zeijlstra. 2014. “The rich agreement hypothesis rehabilitated.” Linguistic Inquiry 45 (4): 571–615.
- Roberts, Ian G., and Anna Roussou. 1999. ”A formal approach to ’grammaticalization’.” Linguistics 37 (6): 1011–1041.
- Roberts, Ian G., and Anna Roussou. 2003. Syntactic change: a minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Tvica, Seid. 2017. Agreement and Verb Movement. The Rich Agreement Hypothesis from a Typological Perspective. Diss. University of Amsterdam.
Seminar: Alexander Pfaff on modification and definiteness marking in the history of Icelandic
Alexander Pfaff is our first speaker this autumn.
Time and place: Sep. 20, 2018 4:15 PM–6:00 PM, HW536
Alexander Pfaff is a postdoc on the project Noun phrases in early Germanic, ILOS and his talk is entitled Patterns of modification and definiteness marking in the history of Icelandic. Abstract below:
"This talk takes a diachronic look at adjectivally modified definite noun phrases in Icelandic. The first part is primarily descriptive and gives a (partial) overview of the diversity observed (a diversity that is only visible in the presence of an adjective!). Particular attention will be paid to the definiteness markers -inn, hinn, sá. The second part of the talk takes a more abstract look at the data. Two aspects will be discussed in some detail: (i) the different status of the suffixed article -inn in Old vs. Modern Icelandic, and (ii) the fact that sá becomes the dominant “adjectival” article during the 16th century apparently replacing hinn in that function. The same development had in fact taken place earlier in Mainland Scandinavian. Differently from the latter, however, in Icelandic, the process is reversed during the 19th century and hinn becomes the dominant adjectival article once more, albeit not the dominant pattern."
Seminar: Kersti Börjars on the development of the WILL verb in Germanic
Kersti Börjars (ILN/University of Manchester) is the fourth speaker in this spring's seminar series on language change.
Time and place: May 24, 2018 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
We are very happy to announce that Kersti Börjars (Professor, University of Manchester/Professor II, ILN) will give the fourth talk in our seminar series on language change. Everyone is welcome to the seminar, which is followed by snacks and refreshments.
From DESIRE to FUTURE: the development of the WILL verb in Germanic
In this paper, I look at the development of the WILL verb in a number of Germanic language and show that the languages vary greatly both in the extent to which WILL has developed and the extent to which old meanings and structures have been maintained. Using Lexical-Functional Grammar, I argue that this is best analysed as a change from WILL taking a finite closed complement, to the construction involving anaphoric control, to it finally being a case of functional control. More informally, it involves a reduction in the ‘desire’ element of the meaning as well as a reduction in the subject’s connection with the main verb. This is paralleled by structural changes. (Joint work with Nigel Vincent)
Seminar: Terje Lohndal on the decline of feminine gender in Norwegian
The next seminar on language change is on the decline of feminine gender in spoken varieties of Norwegian.
Time and place: May 3, 2018 1:15 PM–3:00 PM, HW536
Terje Lohndal (Professor of English Linguistics, NTNU/Professor II, UiT) will give the third talk in our seminar series on language change. Note that this time, we will start at 13:15! Everyone is welcome to the seminar, which will be followed by snacks and refreshments.
The decline of feminine gender in spoken varieties of Norwegian
In this talk, I will report on recent research into the gender system of several varieties of Norwegian focusing on acquisition, variation, and change. Interestingly, a surprising finding in recent years is that feminine gender appears to be in the process of being lost also in dialects where there traditional three-gender system has been assumed to be quite stable in the spoken language, such as the city of Tromsø (Rodina & Westergaard 2015). I will report on a replication of the Tromsø study in Trondheim (joint work with Guro Busterud, Yulia Rodina & Marit Westergaard) and show that feminine gender is disappearing from this dialect too. I will discuss the findings and some of their implications.
Seminar: Tam Blaxter on linguistic diffusion in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum
Charter from the Diplomatarium Norvegicum.
Tam Blaxter (University of Cambridge) will give the second talk in our seminar series on language change.
Time and place: Apr. 19, 2018 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
Tam Blaxter, Research Fellow at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, will give the second talk in the seminar series on language change this spring. Tam Blaxter has worked extensively on variation and change in Old and Middle Norwegian – her talk is entitled Ther varom mid j hia: Tracing linguistic diffusion in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum. An abstract is provided below:
"The Diplomatarium Norvegicum are problematic sources for medieval Norwegian: we usually don’t know how charter language has been influenced by exemplars, who wrote and who dictated texts, or how ‘standard’ forms of writing interfered with the representation of speech. Yet in other senses these are rich historical sources that could throw a light on many external and internal linguistic questions. Charters are almost always precisely dated and record rich information about signatories and locality. As noisy and complex sources, they call for sophisticated and nuanced methods when tracing change or dialectal distributions.
In this talk I will present a new historical dialectological approach to tracing language change in the DN, kernel density estimation. I will focus on the loss of the dual-plural distinction in the first person pronoun, asking: when was this distinction lost? Was this prompted by contact with Low German or East Nordic, or was it a community-internal development? How did it lead to the diversity of plural forms in Modern Norwegian?"
Seminar: Christine Meklenborg Salvesen
Christine Meklenborg Salvesen will give a talk on resumptive structure in the history of Swedish. Everyone is welcome!
Time and place: Mar. 1, 2018 3:15 PM–5:00 PM, HW536
Christine Meklenborg Salvesen (ILOS) is the first speaker in a series of seminars organised by the Research Group in Language Change this spring. Her talk is entitled "The curious case of tha and så. Changes in the resumptive structure in the history of Swedish".