History of English as punctuated equilibria? A meta-analysis of the rate of linguistic change in Middle English

Terttu Nevalainen,Jefrey Lijffijt,Turo Vartiainen,Tanja Säily,Aatu Liimatta

doi:10.1515/jhsl-2019-0008

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, we explore the rate of language change in the history of English. Our main focus is on detecting periods of accelerated change in Middle English (1150–1500), but we also compare the Middle English data with the Early Modern period (1500–1700) in order to establish a longer diachrony for the pace at which English has changed over time. Our study is based on a meta-analysis of existing corpus research, which is made available through a new linguistic resource, the Language Change Database (LCD). By aggregating the rates of 44 individual changes, we provide a critical assessment of how well the theory of punctuated equilibria (Dixon, Robert M. W. 1997.The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) fits with our results. More specifically, by comparing the rate of language change with major language-external events, such as the Norman Conquest and the Black Death, we provide the first corpus-based meta-analysis of whether these events, which had significant societal consequences, also had an impact on the rate of language change. Our results indicate that major changes in the rate of linguistic change in the late medieval period could indeed be connected to the social and cultural after-effects of the Norman Conquest. We also make a methodological contribution to the field of English historical linguistics: by re-using data from existing research, linguists can start to ask new, fundamental questions about the ways in which language change progresses.

Highlights

The broad outline of language contact in the British Isles is well known, and the English language itself has quite a long documented history
It is shown that, reflecting certain social and cultural developments catalyzed by the Norman Conquest, the textual record we studied points to one major juncture of accelerated linguistic change in Middle English
With this study we have taken the first steps towards answering some fundamental questions about the nature of language change by carrying out a meta-analysis of a number of linguistic changes in the history of English

Summary

Introduction

The broad outline of language contact in the British Isles is well known, and the English language itself has quite a long documented history. Much of this textual evidence has been digitized, making it possible to trace changes in the language empirically over some 12 centuries. Meta-analyses are routinely performed in fields such as medicine to find a common effect in quantitative evidence drawn from earlier studies (e.g. Cooper et al 2009). Beginning in the fifth century, Germanic people – Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians – from the North Sea coast started raids around the coast of England With time they colonized much of the territory between them, and their language eventually replaced the native Celtic in these areas (Filppula and Klemola 2009; Higham and Ryan 2013). The extent to which insular Celtic had a role to play in the overall structural simplification of English is a matter for debate (Trudgill 2016: 325–329)

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Discussion

Conclusion