Linguistic Cyclicity

1
Linguistic Cyclicity

• Elly van Gelderen
• Arizona State University
• Madison, 25 January 2013

2
Outline

• Views on the cycle and on causes
• Micro and macrocyles
• Four examples
• Negative
• Subject
• Copula
• Demonstrative
• Explanations for the loss and renewal
• Some concerns

3
Heine et als three types

• 1. isolated instances of grammaticalization, as
  when a lexical item grammaticalizes and is then
  replaced by a new lexeme. For instance, the
  lexical verb go (or want) being used as a future
  marker.
• 2. subparts of language, for example, when the
  tense-aspect-mood system of a given language
  develops from a periphrastic into an inflexional
  pattern and back to a new periphrastic one or
  when negatives change.

4
and

• 3. entire languages and language types but
  there is more justification to apply the notion
  of a linguistic cycle to individual linguistic
  developments, e.g. the development of future
  markers, of negatives, and of tense, rather than
  to changes in typological character, as in from
  analytic to synthetic and back to analytic.

5
Caution about the third kind

• Heine et als reasons for caution about the third
  type of change, i.e. a cyclical change in
  language typology, is that we dont know enough
  about older stages of languages.
• Most linguists are comfortable with cycles of the
  first and second kind but they are not with
  cycles of the third kind, e.g. Jespersen (1922
  chapter 21.9).

6
Macroparameters and microparameters

• Baker (2001) and, more recently, Biberauer
  Roberts (2012) have formulated macro and micro
  parameters.
• Macroparameters for Baker define the character of
  a particular language, e.g. polysynthetic or not,
  whereas microparameters for BR may involve the
  features of a particular lexical item.

7
Macrocycles and microcycles

• In the same vein, it is possible to distinguish
  two kinds of cycles, a macrocycle and a
  microcycle.
• 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
  als first and second kind.
• Macrocycles, more controversially, concern the
  entire linguistic system, i.e. Heine et als
  third kind.

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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.

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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)

10
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.
• 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
  also replacing case with prepositions (p. 183).

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Grammaticalization one step

• Hopper Traugott 2003 content item gt
  grammatical word gt clitic gt inflectional affix.
• The loss in phonological content is, however, not
  a necessary consequence of the loss of semantic
  content (see Kiparsky 2011 Kiparsky Condoravdi
  2006 Hoeksema 2009).
• Kiparsky (2011 19) writes in the development of
  case, bleaching is not necessarily tied to
  morphological downgrading from postposition to
  clitic to suf?x. Instead, according to Kiparsky,
  unidirectionality is the defining property of
  grammaticalization and any exceptions to the
  unidirectionality (e.g. the Spanish inflectional
  morpheme nos changing to a pronoun) are
  instances of analogical changes.

12

• In 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) find no evidence for
  phonetic weakening in Jespersens Cycle in Greek
  and 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. When emphatic
  negatives are overused, their semantic impact
  weakens and they become the regular negative and
  a new emphatic will appear.

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ctd

• LArrivée (2010) argues that a specific pragmatic
  function, namely accessibility of a proposition
  to the hearer, plays a role.
• Language internal reasons have also been argued
  as responsible for grammaticalization (and the
  cycle) in Roberts Roussou (2003) and van
  Gelderen (2004 2011). These authors have
  suggested that the child in acquiring its
  language makes choices based on economy principles

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Microcycle

• (1)a. Im gonna leave for the summer.
• b. Im gonna to Flagstaff for the summer.
• Nesselhauf (2012) provides a very precise account
  of the changes in the various future markers
  (shall, will, ll, be going to, be to, and the
  progressive) in the last 250 years. She
  identifies three crucial features, intention,
  prediction, and arrangement, and argues that as
  the sense of intention is lost and is 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).

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Going to

• Nesselhaufs data on BE going to show that its
  use as a future marker has increased, both in the
  intention and prediction sense, and that the
  proportion of pure prediction is increasing.
• Once the sense of prediction prevails, another
  verb may be taking over to compensate for the
  feature of intention.

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Macrocycles

• Hodge (1971)
• Proto-Afroasiatic analytic Sm
• Old Egyptian synthetic sM
• Late Egyptian analytic Sm
• Coptic synthetic sM
• August Wilhem von Schlegel seems to be the first
  in 1818 to use the terms analytic and synthetic
  where languages are concerned.
• Morphemes per word?

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Attachment Type Cycle

• Isolating
• Inflectional Agglutinative

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Four (micro)cycles I will look at

• Negative Cycles
• negative argument gt negative adverb gt negative
  particle gt zero
• negative verb gt auxiliary gt negative gt zero
• Subject Agreement Cycle
• demonstrative/emphatic gt pronoun gt agreement gt
  zero
• Copula Cycles
• demonstrative/verb/adposition gt copula gt zero
• Demonstrative gt article/copula/tense marker

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Two Negative Cycles

• I Indefinite phrase gt negative Jespersens
  Cycle
• Negation weakens and is renewed. For instance
• (1) I cant do that gt
• (2) I cant see nothing
• II Verb gt negative
• (3) is-i ba-d-o
• she-NOM disappear-PF-PST
• She disappeared' (Binyam 2007 7).
• (4) is-i dana ush-u-wa-nni-ko
• she-NOM beer drink-PRES-not_exist-3FS-FOC
• She does (will) not drink beer. (Binyam 2007
  9).

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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 gt -not/-nt after 1400

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• Old English
• (1) Men ne cunnon secgan to soðe ... hwa
• Man not could tell to truth ... who
• No man can tell for certain ... who'.
• (2) Næron 3e noht æmetti3e, ðeah ge wel ne dyden
• not-were you not unoccupied. though you well not
  did
• You were not unoccupied, though you did not do
  well'.

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Weakening and renewal

• (1) we cannot tell of (Wycliff Sermons from the
  1380s)
• (2) But I shan't put you to the trouble of
  farther Excuses, if you please this Business
  shall rest here. (Vanbrugh, The Relapse1680s).
• (3) that the sonne dwellith therfore nevere the
  more ne lasse in oon signe than in another
  (Chaucer, Astrolabe 665 C1).
• (4) No, I never see him these days (BNC - A9H
  350)

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Negative source is a verb

• (1) wo mei you shu Chinese
• I not exist book
• I don't have a book.
• (2) Yao Shun ji mo ... Old Chinese
• Yao Shun since died
• Since Yao and Shun died, ...'
• (Mengzi, Tengwengong B, from Lin 2002 5)
• (3)yu de wang ren mei kunan, ... Early Mandarin
• wish PRT died person not-be suffering
• If you wish that the deceased one has no
  suffering, ...'
• (Dunhuang Bianwen, from Lin 2002 5-6)

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Two Cycles

• Using an indefinite, e.g. nothing/never/a bit
• English, French, Arabic
• Using a new verb
• Chinese
• Using both
• Koorete, Athabaskan

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The Negative Cycle

• XP
• Spec X'
• na wiht X YP
• not gt nt

26

• 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

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The Subject Cycle

• A. demonstrative gt third person pron gt clitic gt
  agreement
• B. oblique gt emphatic gt first/second pron gt
  clitic gt agreement
• noun gt
• (1) Shi diné bizaad yíní-sh-ta'
• I Navajo language 3-1-study
• As for me, I am studying Navajo.

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Some stages

• Japanese and Urdu/Hindi full pronoun
• (1) watashi-wa kuruma-o unten-suru kara.
• I-TOP car-ACC drive-NONPST PRT
• I will drive the car'. (Yoko Matsuzaki p.c.)
• (2)a. m?y nee us ko dekha
• 1S ERG him DAT saw
• b. aadmii nee kitaab ko peRha
• man ERG book DAT read
• (3) ham log we people
• (4) m?y or merii behn doonõ dilii m?y rehtee h?
• I and my sister both Delhi in living are

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English in transition

• (a) Modification, (b) coordination, (c) position,
  
• (d) doubling, (e) loss of V-movement, (f) Code
  switching
• Coordination (and Case)
• (1) Kitty and me were to spend the day.
• (2) while he and she went across the hall.
• Position
• (3) Shes very good, though I perhaps I shouldnt
  say so.
• (4) You maybe you've done it but have forgotten.
• (5) Me, I was flying economy, but the plane,
  was guzzling gas

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Doubling and cliticization

• (1) Me, I've tucking had it with the small place.
• (2) Him, he ....
• (3) Her, she shouldnt do that (not attested
  in the BNC)
• (4) As for a dog, it should be happy.
• CSE-FAC
• uncliticized cliticized total
• I 2037 685 (25) 2722
• you 1176 162 (12.1) 1338
• he 128 19 (12.9) 147

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Loss of V-movement and Code switching

• (5) What I'm go'n 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

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French

• (1) Se je meïsme ne li di Old French
• If I myself not him tell
• If I dont tell him myself. (Franzén 193920,
  Cligès 993)
• (2) Renars respond Jou, je nirai
• R answers Me, I wont go.
• (Coronnement Renart, A. Foulet (ed.) 1929 598,
  from Roberts 1993 112)

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• (1)a. Je heureusement ai vu ça I I probably
  have seen that
• Ive probably seen that.
• b. Kurt, heureusement, a fait beaucoup d'autres
  choses.
• Kurt fortunately has done many other things
• Fortunately, Kurt did many other things
  (google search of French websites)
• (2) Où vas-tu Standard French
• where go-2S
• (3) tu vas où Colloquial French
• 2S go where
• Where are you going?'

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The flavors of copulas

• e.g. English be, become, go, fall, turn, seem,
  appear, stay, and remain.
• semantic features
• be remain seem, appear stay
• location duration visible duration
• equal

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Demonstrative and adverbial source

• (1) a. Mi da i tatá Saramaccan I am your
  father
• I am your father. (McWhorter 1997 87)
• b. Hen dà dí Gaamá
• he is the chief
• He's the chief. (McWhorter 1997 98)
• (2) Dí wómi de a wósu
• the woman is at house
• The woman is at home. (McWhorter 1997 88)

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Cape Verdean Creole

• Individual-level
• (3) a. (El) e nha pai
• He is my father.
• b. (El) e spertu S/he is smart.
• Stage-level
• (4) Bu sta livri
• You are free. (Baptista 2002 255)

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Demonstratives gt articles

• (1) demonstrative/adverb gt definite article gt
  Case/non-generic gt class marker gt 0
• (2) gife to þa munecas of þe mynstre give to
  the monks of the abbey (Peterborough Chron. 656)
• (3) the

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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)

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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.
• Hygelacs thane heard about Grendels deeds
  while in Geatland he (Hygelacs thane) was
  mankinds strongest man on earth, noble and
  powerful.

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Old English ctd

• Het 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 (Hygelacs thane) though he was dear to
  them. (Beowulf 194-98)

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Traugott (1992 171)

• (2) Þa clypode an ðæra manna Zebeus gehaten and
  cwæð to ðam cyninge
• Then cried one of-the men Zebeus called and
  said to the king
• Eala ðu cyning þas fulan wuhta þu scoldest
  awurpan of ðinum rice.
• Oh you king the foul creatures you should
  throw-out of your kingdom
• ðylæs ðe hi mid heora fylðe us ealle besmiton
• in-case that they the foul creatures with
  their filth us all affect
• Hi habbað mid him awyriedne engel. mancynnes
  feond.
• They the foul creatures have with them
  corrupt angel, mankinds enemy
• and se hæfð andweald on ðam mannum ðe heora
  scyppend forseoð.
• and he the angel has power over those men that
  their creator despise
• and to deofolgyldum bugað
• and to idols bow.
• (DOE Segment 8 Ælfrics Catholic Homilies,
  second series M. Godden 1979, p. 283. 110 115)

42
Cf. Dutch

• (3) Hij had Stern gesproken en aan deze enige
  woorden en zaken uitgelegd, die hij niet begreep.
  Die Stern niet begreep, meen ik.
• He had talked to Stern and explained to this
  one some words and matters which he did not
  understand. Which Stern did not understand, I
  mean'. (Multatuli, Max Havelaar, chap 4, van
  Gelderen 1998).

43
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)

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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.

45
Internal External

• se --gt the seo --gt she
• that --gt that hi --gt they
• him/her --gt himself/herself
• a. se/that gt the
• i-loc/i-phi u-T/u-ps ( -Ps)
• b. he/hi is replaced by he
• heo/ha is replaced by she (possibly via seo)
• hi/hie is replaced by they
• i-phi i-phi/i-loc

46

• Demonstrative
• i-phi
• i-loc
•  article pronoun C copula
• u-phi i-phi u/i-T u-phi
• u-T i-loc
• Feature Economy
• Utilize semantic features use them as for
  functional categories, i.e. as formal features.

47
Types of minimalist features

• The semantic features of lexical items (which
  have to be cognitively based not UG)
• The interpretable ones relevant at the
  Conceptual-Intentional interface.
• Uninterpretable features act as glue so to
  speak to help out merge. For instance, person and
  number features (phi-features) are interpretable
  on nouns but not on verbs.

48
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.

49
Features of airplane and build (adapted from
Chomsky 1995 231)

• airplane build
• semantic e.g. artifact e.g. action
• phonological e.g. begins with a vowel e.g.
  one syllable
• two syllables
• formal
• intrinsic optional intrinsic optional
• nominal number verbal phi
• 3 person Case assign accusative tense
• non-human

50
The "much more important distinction (1995
277)

• Formal features are interpretable and
  uninterpretable
• airplane build
• Interpr. nominal verbal
• 3 person assign non-human
  accusative
• Uninterpr Case phi

51
Simplifying checking

• He reads books
• before
• checking i-3S u-phi i-3P
• after
• checking i-3S u-phi i-3P
• Thats why me sees him is ok!

52
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).

53
Feature Economy

• (a) Utilize semantic features use them as for
  functional categories, i.e. as formal features.
• (b) If a specific feature appears more than once,
  one of these is interpretable and the others are
  uninterpretable

54
Innate vs learned

• shapes grammatical number
• negatives negation
• if
• real-unreal irrealis
• mass-count
• duration progressive

55
Loss of semantic features

• Full verbs such as Old English will with
• volition, expectation, future features are
  reanalyzed as having only the feature future in
  Middle English.
• And the negative
• OE no/ne gt ME (ne) not gt -nt
• gt ModE nt ... nothing, never, etc

56
The various cycles in terms of features

• The cycle of agreement
• noun gt emphatic gt pronoun gt agreement gt 0
• sem i-phi i-phi/u-phi u-phi
• The cycles of negation
• a Adjunct/Argument Specifier Head (of
  NegP) affix
• semantic gt i-NEGgt u-NEG gt --
• b. Lexical Head gt (higher) Head gt (higher) Head gt
  0
• neg i-NEG/F F

57
Verb and demonstrative to copula

• Assume copulas have
• be remain seem
• i-loc i-loc i-loc
• i-ASP i-M
• Source for loc? Verbs and demonstratives
• D gt copula gt zero
• i-loc gt i-loc gt --
• i-phi gt u-phi
• u-T

58

• Demonstrative
• i-phi
• i-loc
•  
• article pronoun C copula
• u-phi i-phi u/i-T i-loc
• u-T

59
Conclusions

• Recent shift towards third factors and parametric
  features we need to be careful how many
  mechanisms we allow.
• All change is in the lexicon semgti-Fgtu-F
• What does the Poverty of the Stimulus argument
  mean for vocabulary acquisition?

60
Explanations of the Cycle

• Head Preference and Late Merge?
• Or Feature Economy? What is it?
• Maximize syntax?
• Keep merge going?
• Lighter?