Diachronic Processes Research Articles

Stable isotope analysis in soil prospection reveals the type of historic land-use under contemporary temperate forests in Europe

The determination of δ13C and δ15N values is a common method in archaeological isotope analysis—in studying botanical and human remains, dietary practices, and less typically soils (to understand methods of agricultural cultivation, including fertilization). Stable isotope measurements are also commonly used in ecological studies to distinguish different ecosystems and to trace diachronic processes and biogeochemical mechanisms, however, the application of this method in geochemical prospection, for determining historic land-use impact, remains unexplored. The study at hand focuses on a deserted site of a Cistercian manor, dating from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Isotopic measurements of anthropogenically influenced soils have been compared to approximately 400 archaeobotanical, soil, and sediment samples collected globally. The results reveal the potential of isotope measurements in soil to study the impact of past land use as isotope measurements identify specific types of agricultural activities, distinguishing crop production or grazing. δ13C and δ15N ratios also likely reflect fertilization practices and—in this case—the results indicate the presence of cereal cultivation (C3 cycle plants) and fertilization and that the site of the medieval manor was primarily used for grain production rather than animal husbandry.

Populatie en de verspreiding van taalverandering

The morphosyntactic structure of languages largely depends on the demographic structure of the speech community. Larger languages in high-contact communities tend to be morphologically less complex. Complex morphology is harder to acquire for adults, so morphology tends to become simpler with the increasing proportion of L2 speakers. Differences in morphosyntactic complexity are the result of diachronic processes, so the propagation of these processes should occur more rapidly in cities with a larger population, since the growth of cities is often due to immigration, yielding an influx of L2 learners. This hypothesis is tested on two alternations in the recent history of Dutch: the deflection of veel and the hortative alternation. For both changes I build a logistic regression model with the change as the dependent variable and time as the independent variable in interaction with the population size. The results for the hortative alternation indicate that language change is indeed faster in larger cities compared to smaller towns. However, the deflection of veel does not confirm this.

Evolutionary correspondence analysis of the semantic dynamics of frames

Abstract We introduce and implement a novel dimension-reduction method for high-dimensional time-varying contingency-tables: the Evolutionary Correspondence Analysis (ECA). ECA enables a comparative analysis of high-dimensional, diachronic processes by identifying a small number of shared latent variables that shape co-evolving data patterns. ECA offers new opportunities for the study of complex social phenomena, such as co-evolving public debates: Its capacity to inductively extract time-varying latent variables from observed contents of evolving debates permits an analysis of meanings shared by linked sub-discourses, such as linked national public spheres or the discourses led by distinct political camps within a shared public sphere. We illustrate the utility of our approach by studying how the Greek and German right-, centre-, and left-leaning news coverage of the European financial crisis evolved between its outbreak in 2009 until its institutional containment in 2012. Comparing the use of 525 unique concepts in six German and Greek outlets with different political leaning over an extended period of time, we identify two common factors accounting for those evolving meanings and analyse how the different sub-discourses influenced one another over time. We allow the factor loadings to be time-varying, and fit to the latent factors a time-varying vector-auto-regressive model with time-varying mean.

New views on price-making markets and the capitalist impulse: beyond Polanyi

Anthropologists have persistently diminished the importance of the market and marketplace exchange in premodern, preindustrial times. This strident anti-market mentality, derived largely from the writings of Karl Polanyi, underpins an ideological and politicized argument that neither sets useful guideposts to advance anthropological research, nor does it yield the necessary insights or empirically valid foundations to comprehend the deep historical origins of modern economies or polities. In fact, by envisioning the past that is categorically caged from the modern, the school of thought crystalized through Polanyi's perspectives circumvents the role of diachronic processes that are at the heart of a truly historical social science. Although it is not our principal aim to relitigate the vast literature pertaining to the rise and fall of Polanyian thought, our approach expands on prior arguments about his project both by highlighting critical perspectives on capitalism that long predated Polanyian thought and by identifying a veritable bounty of new evidence and theory concerning premodern and contemporary marketplace economies that enable us to transcend these now-entrenched claims. The scheme we present that distinguishes between open and competitive marketplaces, on the one hand, and the capitalist impulse, on the other, we believe, adds depth and breadth to the analysis of price-making markets and their divergent social and economic outcomes across time and space.

On the link between grammaticalization and subjectification

Abstract This article argues that the widespread view that the diachronic processes of grammaticalization and of subjectification go hand in hand, and that highly subjectivized meanings typically correlate with highly grammaticalized forms, should be revised. The point is made on the basis of the case of the diachrony of the Dutch modal verbs. Corpus data show that four of these verbs recently got involved in a process of collective re-autonomization, while the two other modals in the language do not. This correlates with differences in the semantic development of the verbs: the four re-autonomizing verbs do, but the two outliers do not show a regular process of (inter)subjectification. The paper unravels through which mechanisms the grammatical and the semantic developments may correlate, hence why highly subjectivized meanings do not necessarily like a grammatical status.

Corpus-pragmatic perspectives on the contemporary weakening of fuck: The case of teenage British English conversation

This study examines the pragmatic functions of fuck among British English teenagers in casual conversation in two youth language corpora from the 1990s and 2010s. It applies a corpus-pragmatics approach to explore how the ongoing weakening of the taboo strength of fuck in the perception of young speakers is realised in usage data. The major functions observed involve a predominance of idiomatic, emphatic and emotionally expressive functions. Conversely, usage associated with potentially abusive functions, including literal reference to sexual intercourse, is infrequent. Our observations are interpreted in the context of delexicalization and related long-term diachronic processes, whereby contemporary usage of fuck among teenagers is characterised in terms of semi-delexicalized, pragmatically strengthened usage with weakened taboo status. The article also evaluates the interpretation of idiomatic usage from a functional perspective, and contributes to methodological considerations of the use of spoken corpora for pragmatic research.

Modelling the Dynamics of Language Change: Logistic Regression, Piotrowski’s Law, and a Handful of Examples in Polish

ABSTRACT The study discusses modelling diachronic processes by logistic regression. The phenomenon of nonlinear changes in language was first observed by Raimund Piotrowski (hence labelled as Piotrowski’s law), even if actual linguistic evidence often speaks against using the notion of a ‘law’ in this context. In our study, we apply logistic regression models to changes which occurred between 15th and 18th century in the Polish language. The attested course of the majority of these changes closely follow the expected values, which proves that the language change might indeed resemble a nonlinear phase change scenario. We also extend the original Piotrowski’s approach by proposing polynomial logistic regression for these cases which can hardly be described by its standard version. Also, we propose to consider individual language change cases jointly, in order to inspect their possible collinearity or, more likely, their different dynamics in the function of time. Last but not least, we evaluate our results by testing the influence of the subcorpus size on the model’s goodness-of-fit.

Refashioning Origins in the Anthropocene: Reflections on Pedagogical Practice

This contribution to Anthropocenes Interventions brings together the narrative accounts of five undergraduate students frm the Purdue University John Martinson Honors College (JMHC) enrolled in the course HONR 39900: The Anthropocene in fall 2021. The students' starting point for writing was Erle Ellis' commentary about human origins, which he identifies as narratives deeply challenged by the Anthropocene; in rewriting the role of humanity on planet Earth, Ellis argues we are likewise rewriting history, refashioning our understanding of the diachronic processes that shape our world and inform our actions within it. Students were asked to explore these ideas through a re-examination of their own origin stories. Specifically, they were asked to identify their original stories, to consider how these stories have shaped their understandings of their place within the Earth system, and to explore how these understandings might be challenged, amended, undermined, or upheld by the Anthropocene concept. The five selected accounts capture a range of responses that touch upon important, current themes in Anthropocene discourse, including questions pertaining to belonging, ruination, global flows and the stratigraphy of the archaeosphere. As a historical record, they also serve to document emergent understandings of place, agency, and planetary power among a generation of 21st-century students in a US institution focused intently on technological advancements. The themes of each student's contribution are explored and highlighted in a brief introduction written by the course instructor before presenting each student's authored contribution. They are followed with the instructor's summary comments that consider implications for pedagogies of the Anthropocene.

Liquid polarity, positional contrast, and diachronic change

AbstractApparently disparate sound changes in Latin, involving both vowels and consonants but sensitive to /r/, can be explained by reconstructing a positional clear/dark contrast in /r/, motivated by the seldom-mentioned “liquid polarity” effect. Examining these diachronic processes together allows us to see a larger picture, providing evidence for the reconstruction of successive past synchronic states. Latin /r/ mirrored the behaviour of Latin /l/ up to the first century BC: /l/ was dark and /r/ was clear in codas, and /r/ was dark and /l/ was underspecified for tongue body position in onsets. Darkness in /r/ was partly implemented through the selection of r-type: dark onset approximant and clear coda tap. Later, coda /r/ became an approximant like onset /r/, and subsequently both became trills, resulting in the erosion of the positional contrast and the liquid polarity effect.

Barngarla place names and regions in South Australia

ABSTRACT Barngarla is a Thura-Yura Pama-Nyungan language originally spoken on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia and adjacent northern hinterlands. This paper proposes various etymologies and supports the Barngarla language reclamation. Reflecting Barngarla epistemology and traditional ecological knowledge, toponyms are intimately connected to place name reclamation and language reclamation. Delineating hunting, foraging and fishing places, geographical features, and sites embedded in oral history, toponyms also provide windows into broader diachronic processes within grammar and phonology. Oral history recorded by the German missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann indicates naming practices dating back to the late-Pleistocene showing some similarities to other, non-Barngarla groups. Several named band areas seem focused on floristic regions. Barngarla toponyms exhibit signs of diachronic processes both regarding phonology and grammar. We explore the extent to which post-invasion Barngarla names are identifiable, propose evidence for Thura-Yura lenition of an original gabi ‘water’ form, and discuss a locative form -la unrecorded by Schürmann.

Small-scale patterns in a larger picture

Abstract Telling apart family-internal developments from contact-induced changes and socio-geographically conditioned areal trends is still one of the main challenges in tracing the development - and stability - of languages. Notably prima facie contact phenomena might turn out to have resulted from the interaction of a variety of sources upon closer inspection; assessing their interaction is a crucial requirement for comprehending the dynamics of change. Based on the example of simplification patterns in the system of short personal pronouns observed in the Balkan Slavic dialects located in the territory of North Macedonian and Greece, the present paper illustrates the necessity of identifying the multiplicity of triggers and their interaction, thereby making a case for the relevance of small-scale, transient patterns in understanding diachronic processes. In particular, it places the simplifications within the pronominal system into the larger context of differential object indexing by preverbal pronominal elements in the Balkan languages. With the loss of agreement distinctions on pronouns being characteristic for the last phase in the emergence of object indexing, both processes appear to be closely related. Obviously, in this case, the convergence of various different processes has created a favorable environment for the mutual reinforcement and stabilization of two otherwise highly volatile phenomena.

Postverbal negation

AbstractThe paper sketches the state of affairs of our understanding of postverbal negation. It departs from the typological finding that there is a cross-linguistic preference for a negator to precede the verb. Nevertheless, a sizable proportion of the world’s languages adhere to a pattern with a negator following the verb, and such negators are typically morphologically bound. The existence of this pattern, unfavorable from a functional perspective, calls for a diachronic explanation. The paper takes stock of diachronic processes that can lead to postverbal negation, in general, and suffixal negation, in particular. Furthermore, a language may acquire a pattern with postverbal negation through language contact, and this is yet another perspective that the paper addresses. Finally, we introduce the contributions to this volume, highlighting the new insights.

Loss of intersective gradience as the lifeboat of a dying construction. An analysis of the diachronic change of causativebring

AbstractThis paper focusses on diachronic processes which lead to the disambiguation between different constructions involving the same verb. It follows the development ofbringas a periphrastic causative over the course of the Early Modern and Late Modern English periods and compares it to the development of otherbringconstructions. In a corpus-based analysis, it utilizes measures of cue strength as well as collostructional analysis to determine whether reflexive objects, negation, modals or the passive are cues strongly associated with the dying periphrastic causative XbringcauseYto-inf. Results indicate that the construction indeed increasingly attracts reflexive objects in combination with a modal or negation. This finding is interpreted as an indication that non-prototypical verbal properties developing into strong cues for a construction may serve to make a rare construction more salient and thus easier to recognize and process. Furthermore, the construction’s restriction to reflexive patients vastly reduces variability in the object slot.

Weaving together the diverse threads of category change

Abstract This paper investigates category changes among imperative particles in Ancient Greek. Using diachronic evidence from the category change of the imperative ἀμέλει (amélei ‘don’t worry’ > ‘of course’) and similar imperative particles, ἄγε (áge), ἴθι (íthi), φέρε (fére), εἰπέ μοι (eipé moi) and ἰδού (idoú), this paper investigates the diachronic interdependence of intersubjectification, grammaticalization and language change in general. It does this in four ways. First, I show that intersubjectification can take place without subjectification (pace Traugott 2003: 134). Second, I detail the intersubjectification of ἀμέλει with changes in the cognitive domain (no practical > no epistemic worries), the pragmatic domain (responsively resolving > independently assuming resolved worries) and contextual conditions (creating intersubjective alignment > assuming it). Third, I tease apart the various diachronic origins of changes which have affected ἀμέλει. Finally, using contrastive evidence from parallel category changes of Ancient Greek imperative particles, I argue that whereas the imperative particles can be variously affected by structural grammaticalization changes, they all display signs of context change (as shown by illocutionary extensions to occurrence with declarative and interrogative illocutions). Thus, the diverse threads of category change can be woven together by tracing the contexts of change as well as the diachronic processes shaping them.

The Evolutionary Dynamics of Negative Existentials in Indo-European

Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguistic typologists have started to make use of explicit diachronic models as explanations for typological distributions. A topic that lends itself for this approach especially well is that of negation. In this article, we assess the explanatory value of a specific hypothesis, the Negative Existential Cycle (NEC), on the distribution of negative existential strategies (“types”) in 106 Indo-European languages. We use Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to infer posterior distributions of transition rates and parameters, thus applying rational methods to construct and evaluate a set of different models under which the attested typological distribution could have evolved. We find that the frequency of diachronic processes that affect negative existentials outside of the NEC cannot be ignored—the unidirectional NEC alone cannot explain the evolution of negative existential strategies in our sample. We show that non-unidirectional evolutionary models, especially those that allow for different and multiple transitions between strategies, provide better fit. In addition, the phylogenetic modeling is impacted by the expected skewed distribution of negative existential strategies in our sample, pointing out the need for densely sampled and family-based typological research.

Contrastive Feature Typologies of Arabic Consonant Reflexes

Attempts to classify spoken Arabic dialects based on distinct reflexes of consonant phonemes are known to employ a mixture of parameters, which often conflate linguistic and non-linguistic facts. This article advances an alternative, theory-informed perspective of segmental typology, one that takes phonological properties as the object of investigation. Under this approach, various classificatory systems are legitimate; and I utilize a typological scheme within the framework of feature geometry. A minimalist model designed to account for segment-internal representations produces neat typologies of the Arabic consonants that vary across dialects, namely qāf,ǧīm,kāf, ḍād, the interdentals, the rhotic, and the pharyngeals. Cognates for each of these are analyzed in a typology based on a few monovalent contrastive features. A key benefit of the proposed typologies is that the featural compositions of the various cognates give grounds for their behavior, in terms of contrasts and phonological activity, and potentially in diachronic processes as well. At a more general level, property-based typology is a promising line of research that helps us understand and categorize purely linguistic facts across languages or language varieties.

Recent advances in the corpus-based study of ongoing grammatical change in English

Abstract Comparing early and current corpus-based work on ongoing grammatical change in English, the present study argues that progress tends to manifest itself in the more comprehensive and systematic coverage of changes known to be under way rather than in the discovery of genuinely new diachronic processes. As will be shown in two case studies on modal/semi-modal verbs and the progressive, there are three reasons for this. First, corpus research on ongoing change has been helped by increases in the size of available corpora and even more so by better coverage of spoken English. Secondly, researchers have a much wider range of statistical methods to choose from. Thirdly, conceptual advances have been made in theoretical models of change, particularly with regard to the impact of language ideologies and prescriptivism. In the study of ongoing changes, the corpus-based approach remains indispensable because it remedies the errors of impressionistic observation and helps shift attention from a small number of shibboleths important to prescriptivists to the groundswell of grammatical change that generally proceeds below the level of speakers’ conscious awareness.

Towards a source-oriented approach to typological universals

Typological universals are skewed distributional patterns whereby languages recurrently display certain grammatical patterns as opposed to others. Explanations for these patterns are usually based on their synchronic properties, not actual diachronic processes that shape the pattern cross-linguistically. The paper discusses diachronic evidence about the origins of some typological universals pertaining to word order and aspect/tense conditioned alignment splits. This evidence poses two general challenges for synchronically based explanations of typological universals. First, the relevant patterns do not obviously arise because of the principles postulated to account for these patterns on synchronic grounds. Second, the development of these patterns is a combined result of multiple diachronic processes. These facts point to a new, source-oriented approach to typological universals, one focusing on what source constructions and developmental mechanisms play a role in the shaping of individual patterns, rather than the synchronic properties of the pattern in itself.

Adaptive Trade-offs Towards the Last Glacial Maximum in North-Western Europe: a Multidisciplinary View from Walou Cave

The impact of deteriorating climatic conditions on variability in the archaeological record towards the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains uncertain. Partly as a result of poor-quality data, previous studies on Upper Palaeolithic (UP) societies of North-Western Europe prior to the LGM have focused on techno-typological traditions and diversification to outline the diachronic processes through which assemblage composition changed. This study addresses the adaptive trade-offs brought about by the general climatic downturn towards the LGM in North-Western Europe, by investigating the impact of local climate and habitat characteristics on the behavioural variability that characterises Gravettian technological organisation compared to the previous Aurignacian, based on two assemblages from Walou Cave, Belgium. This site is one of the rare well-stratified sites in North-Western Europe with evidence for multiple occupation events accompanied by a fine-grained palaeoenvironmental record. We use a combination of analytical techniques (AMS, LA-ICP-MS and ZooMS) to evaluate questions about hunter-gatherer adaptations. Faunal remains at Walou Cave mirror the faunal diversity documented at numerous other Aurignacian and Gravettian sites in the broader European context, which is similar between both periods. The overall picture presented here, using multiple lines of evidence, is not entirely clear; nonetheless, the results suggest that Gravettian technologies are unlikely to solely be a product of heightened risk in relation to a significant reshuffling of food resources compared to the previous Aurignacian. Future research of the factors structuring assemblage variability prior to the LGM will have to assess whether Aurignacian and Gravettian technologies indeed offer no relative material advantage over one another, a phenomenon called ‘technological equivalence’.

Synchronic variation in Sri Lanka Portuguese personal pronouns

Abstract This paper presents and discusses the instances of synchronic variation attested in the personal pronoun paradigm of modern Sri Lanka Portuguese, an endangered Portuguese-based creole spoken by relatively small communities scattered across Eastern and Northern Sri Lanka. Although Sri Lanka Portuguese has a long history of documentation dating from, at least, the beginning of the 19th century, only a few studies have explicitly reported cases of synchronic variation. This study aims, therefore, to fill that gap, by contributing to the description and explanation of patterns of variation relating to the personal pronoun paradigm as encountered in documentary data collected between 2015 and 2020, over several field trips to the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna, and Trincomalee. The nature of the variation observed in the data ranges from phonetic alternations to strategies of paradigm regularization and stylistic shrinkage, often revealing the effects of diachronic processes of variant competition and substitution. Combining the observed patterns of variation with surveyed linguistic trends of language shift, we propose that obsolescence may be responsible for some of the variability encountered in modern SLP personal pronouns, especially that associated with certain socially- or geographically-defined subsets of the speech community (viz. the younger generations and the speakers from Jaffna) characterized by advanced language loss.