ΔiaLing presentation by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang De Melo (Oxford University): “Varro’s linguistic theory: etymology, morphology and syntax.”

You can find the abstract here.

ΔiaLing presentation by Prof. Dr. Anna Volkova (Linguistic Convergence Laboratory – National Research University Higher School of Economics): “Subject encoding in participial relative clauses.”

You can find the abstract here.

ΔiaLing presentation by Dr. Lisa Bylinina & Alexander Podobryaev (LUCL – Leiden University): “Number-neutrality and DP structure in Buriat.”

You can find the abstract here.

ΔiaLing presentation by Prof. dr. Álvaro Octavio de Toledo y Huerta (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / Madrid Institute of Advanced Studies): “Historical prejudice and linguistic oblivion: on Spanish during the ‘Decadence’ (ca. 1665-1830)”. 

Download the abstract here.

Download the abstract here.

Download the abstract here.

Matti Marttinen Larsson: korte voorstelling doctoraatsproject

On the morphosyntactic variation in adverbial locative phrases in Spanish diatopic and sociolinguistic varieties

 

Melissa Farasyn: langere presentatie

Position-dependent agreement in the Middle Low German plural verbal paradigm

 

This study focuses on a special kind of verbal ending in Middle Low German (MLG) arising in the first and second person plural (1^st and 2^nd p.pl.). In inversion contexts, the regular unitary inflection ending in the plural (-et/-en) alternates with an ending –e, missing the final consonant (cf. (1a) and (2a) for inversion without and (1b) and (2b) with a topic) (Lasch 1974²:227).

(1) a. late wy ene ‘Let us leave him alone‘ (Buxtehuder Evangeliar)

b. Nu bekenne wi […] ‘Now we confess […]‘ (Buxtehuder Evangeliar)

(2) a. Wylle gij na dessem leuende myt vrowden syn

‘Do you want to be joyful after this life?‘ (Marienklage)

b. Nu schulle gy horen vnde merken rechte […]

‘Now you will hear and learn truly […]‘ (Buxtehuder Evangeliar)

 

A corpus study of 13,500 finite clauses shows that this alternation is robustly attested in all main dialect areas in Middle Low German (i.e. in 95.15% of all inversion cases). Subjunctive and indicative mood are equally affected. As MLG deletion is thus virtually omnipresent, it is difficult to trace whether the alternation originated in one specific environment. Therefore, a closer look at temporarily overlapping or related languages might shed a light on the origin of the structure.

 

Another difficulty tracing the origins of the structure is that the predecessor of MLG, Old Saxon (OS), has no occurrences of deletion at all (Sehrt 1925). One might argue that deletion is not visible due to the smaller amount of data, and that OS might have had sparse examples of deletion that coincidentally not show up in the small amount of available texts. This hypothesis has been tested statistically by comparison with the OE data: the results showed that the datasets show no significant correlation and thus are completely differently concerning deletion. This could mean that the alternating inversion ending in OS only developed after the 9^th century during the time in which there is an attestation gap in which Latin was the writing language in the area, but could also support the criticized position of the attested OS text fragments as representative for the spoken predecessor language of MLG. The last idea is supported by the fact that the closely related Ingvæonic languages Old Frisian (cf. Hoekstra 2001, overlapping in time with MLG) and OE (providing the oldest examples of deletion) do have deletion and by the fact that MLG has it in such a great extent, even in the earliest texts. In other West Germanic languages like Old and Middle Dutch, and Old and Middle High German, deletion happens far less frequent and much later than in OE. The alternating ending in OE in particular suggests that it is a much older phenomenon, which has been present in Ingvæonic even before the the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.

 

The large amount of OE data, in which deletion is common – though not as common as in MLG –, can (indirectly) shed a light on the origin and spread of the deletion. I designed queries to search through all clauses with a finite verb followed by a 1^st or 2^nd p.pl. pronoun in inversion in the YCOE (Taylor et al. 2003). The output shows that person and mood have a statistically significant influence on the possibility of deletion. The deletion clearly spreads from the 2^nd p.pl. present tense, probably from the subjunctive mood.

 

Questions to be addressed for the analysis are (i) why another verb form arises, (ii) why deletion exclusively takes place in inversion, (iii) why it happens only ever in the first and second person plural and (iv) why the ending of the imperative is not affected.

 

I propose a change that originates in the prosodic phrase of 2^nd p.pl. verb in the subjunctive mood followed by the 2^nd p.pl. pronoun, following Ackema & Neeleman (2003) who propose deletion to occur within phonological phrases in which readjustment rules can apply. The difference between clauses with inversion and subject initial ones is that subject and verb belong to the same prosodic phrase in inversion (3a), whereas they belong to a different prosodic phrase in clauses without inversion (3b). This results from the fact that the verb takes a different position in inversion (Zwart 1993). In languages with a left-alignment property, the right edges of XP’s correspond to the right boundaries of prosodic phrases (cf. (3a) and (3b)).

 

(3) a. [CP [C bidde [IP [DP gy] […]] → {bidde gy} (phrasing in MLG)

 

b. [IP [DP gy] [I bidden] […]] → {gy}{bidden} (phrasing in MLG)

 

The change in the phrase is initially phonologically triggered by adjacency of the consonant in the coda of the verb and the initial velar of the pronoun, accelerated by analogy to the 1^st and 3^rd sg. (f.i. bidde ick, lit. ‘pray I’). Deletion analogically extends to 1^st p.pl., but not to 3^rd, as it is blocked by the longer coda –nð, which pre-existed quite long – only in the present, where the change starts – until changing to the Einheitsplural (Gallée 1891:246). Similarly, The old ending -nt can still be found in Westphalian texts from the 13^th and 14^th century (Lasch 1974²:227). The deletion spreads to other moods and tenses by analogical levelling. It remains a feature specific to 1^st and 2^nd p.pl., even when –nð in the 3^rd person is completely lost, consolidating the Einheitsplural. Because of this, the structure early developed a systematic character, as a different ending in 1^st and 2^nd p.pl. corresponds to a distinction between regular plural markings (3^rd p.pl.) and speech act participant markers (participant (Prt)/addressee (Adr)). In this way, the phonological change gets reinterpreted as a systematic one.

 

The allomorphic rule behind the new systematic change in MLG means that the common morphosyntactic features that are carried by the verb and the pronoun and which are normally only spelled out by the pronoun will be spelled out by the verb as well in this specific environment, if the verb and the pronoun holding a common plural feature are in the same phonological phrase. In non-inversion contexts, only the plural feature is spelled out, resulting in the regular endings of the Einheitsplural.

 

(5) a. {[V Pl] … [D Pl, Prt]} → {[V Pl, Prt] … [D Pl, Prt]}

 

b. {[V Pl] … [D Pl, Prt, Add]} → {[V Pl, Prt, Add] … [D Pl, Prt, Add]}

The result of this change is that the modern Low German dialects and the related Eastern Dutch dialects still show this alternation. One particular dialect even distinguishes all persons and numbers in the present tense in its agreement morphology (again), but solely in inversion.

 

Selected references Ackema, P. / A. Neeleman. Context-sensitive spell-out. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21, 4 (2003):681-735. Gallée, J.H., ed. Altsächsische Grammatik. Vol. 1. Niemeyer, 1891. Hoekstra, J. Zu einem Problem der Frisistik: der Übergang der Präs. Plur.-Endung-ath zu-a. Vulpis Adolatio. Festschrift für Hubertus Menke zum 60 (2001):341-61. Hogg, R.M. / R.D. Fulk. A grammar of Old English, volume 2: Morphology. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Höhle, T. Vorangestellte Verben und Komplementierer sind eine natürliche Klasse. Sprache im Fokus. Festschrift für Heinz Vater zum 65 (1997):107-120. Lasch, A. Mittelniederdeutsche Grammatik. Vol. 9. De Gruyter, 1974². Sanders, W. Altsächsische Sprache. Niederdeutsch. Sprache und Literature. Eine Einführung. Ed. J. Goossens. Bd. 1: Sprache. (1973):28-65. Neumünster. Sehrt, E.H. Vollständiges Wörterbuch zum Heliand und zur altsächsischen Genesis. Johns Hopkins, 1925. Taylor et al. The York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose. University of York (2003). Zwart, C.J.W.. Dutch syntax: A minimalist approach. PhD diss., Universiteitsdrukkerij, 1993.

Dialect contact, spatial variation, and language change in the morphology of the Basque auxiliary verb (Aaron Ecay, Ghent University)

In this talk, I will focus on two loci of morphological variation among Basque dialects. Basque verbs agree with arguments in the absolutive, ergative, and dative cases; both loci of variation considered in this talk concern the distribution of these morphemes in the auxiliary verb “izan” (to be/to have).

The first locus of variation is called “Differential Object Marking” (DOM). In DOM, what would in non-DOM dialects (including the standard) be an absolutive-marked (direct) object

is marked with dative case and agreement is marked on the verb using a dative-agreement

suffix rather than an absolutive-agreement prefix. The second variable is Dative Displacement (DD), which refers to the use of an absolutive-agreement prefix to mark agreement with a dative (indirect) object. From a the point of view of verbal morphology, then, DD and DOM are exact inverses of each other (they do differ in the effect they have in other morphosyntactic domains such as case-marking).

The talk explores the spatial distribution of varaints of DOM and DD through data from the “Morfologia del verbo auxiliar vasco” dialect atlas. Based on similarity to a Spanish

morphological phenomenon (also called DOM), Basque DOM has usually been analyzed as a

borrowing from that language. The data confirms this analysis and further indicates that there

are two areas in which DOM has been borrowed, apparently independently, into Basque – one

in the West and one in the Southeast.

DD has perhaps a less regular spatial distribution: in addition to a large area of DD dialects in the central northern area (i.e. the province of Lapurdi), it has been noticed in several other seemingly unconnected localities as well. Analysis of the data reveals that these latter occurrences are associated with contact between DOM and non-DOM dialects. In addition to offering an explanation of the distribution of DD, this observation lends support to the

hypothesis that linguistic innovation is (or can be) triggered when learners are faced with

inconsistent or variable input in situations of language contact.

I will also discuss how data on diatopic variation can inform morphosyntactic analysis. Forms that might appear problematic (or at least in need of a specific theoretical explanation) in “syntopic” data can turn out to be an epiphenomenon of variation and change. Finally, Basque displays a variety of morphological patterns beyond those discussed in the bulk of the talk. The data in Basque dialect atlases is a rich source of fine-grained detail on the behavior of these patterns in space and (to some degree) in time. I will briefly point out other areas of the data that (potentially) interact with DD and DOM, and which might give rise to other interesting discoveries.

(download the abstract)

Simon Aerts (BOF): “A synchronic and diachronic systemic functional ‘three-dimensional’ approach to tense and aspect in the writings of Caesar and Gregory of Tours”

Koen Bostoen (ERC Consolidator Grant): “The First Bantu Speakers South of the Rainforest: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Human Migration, Language Spread, Climate Change and Early Farming in Late Holocene Central Africa”

Abstracts:

A synchronic and diachronic systemic functional ‘three-dimensional’ approach to tense and aspect in the writings of Caesar and Gregory of Tours

Simon Aerts (Universiteit Gent)

My research deals with the verbal categories of (relative) tense & aspect in a corpus of Latin historiographical texts: the writings of Caesar (first century BC) and Gregory of Tours (sixth century AD). The framework is a Systemic Functional model (with cognitive and other influences), especially in Bache’s (2008) version. The texts are divided in narrative episodes and marked for discours mode (Smith 2003), and then subjected to a close reading on three levels of meaning, or metafunctions: ideational/representational (e.g. temporal deixis, grammatical aspect in the sense of terminativity), textual/presentational (e.g. foreground-background, discours cohesion, anticipation) and interpersonal (e.g. internal/external perspective, focalization). It is an important aspect of my investigation to see texts (and verb tenses) as having a metafunctionally diverse meaning potential, of which some meanings are emphasized or excluded by, for instance, the context. Accordingly, Latin examples are never given without the broader context.

By means of this close reading, the texts are annotated for multiple variables in a new database, of which the correlation with the use of the narrative tenses will be statistically computed. In this way, I hope to contribute to the discussion on Latin tense and aspect as the basic meaning of the infectum and perfectum stems, by conducting a modern and comprehensive research. It is, however, important not to take a stance in the debate from the start, as many linguists seem to have done in the past.

The investigation also includes a diachronic element: the language of Caesar is compared to the that of Gregory of Tours, in order to provide an interesting starting point for studies of Romance languages. This excursion is, however, planned for a later phase of my project.

 The First Bantu Speakers South of the Rainforest: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Human Migration, Language Spread, Climate Change and Early Farming in Late Holocene Central Africa

Koen Bostoen (Universiteit Gent)

The Bantu Expansion is not only the principal linguistic, cultural and demographic process in Late Holocene Africa. It has also become one of the most controversial issues in African History. Several generations of linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists, palaeoenvironmentalists, geneticists and many more have tried to answer the question of how the relatively young Bantu language family (ca. 5000 years) could spread over disproportionally large parts of Central, Eastern and Southern Africa, but have almost always done so from a discipline-specific base.

The prevailing synthesis is a model in which the Bantu language dispersal is conceived as resulting from a single migratory macro-event driven by agriculture. However, many basic questions about the movement and subsistence of ancestral Bantu speakers are still completely open and can only be addressed through genuine interdisciplinary collaboration as proposed here. Through this project, researchers with outstanding expertise in Central African archaeology, archaeobotany and historical linguistics will form a unique cross-disciplinary team to carry out together evidence-based frontier research on the first Bantu-speaking settlements south of the equatorial rainforest.

Archaeological fieldwork will be undertaken in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo and Angola that are as yet still unexplored by archaeologists in order to determine the timing, location and archaeological signature of the earliest Bantu-speaking settlers in that region and to establish how they interacted with autochthonous hunter-gatherers. To get a better idea of their subsistence, diet and natural habitat, special attention will be paid to archaeobotanical and palaeoenvironmental proxies, whose study is still in its infancy within Central African archaeological contexts. Historical linguistic research will be pushed beyond the boundaries of vocabulary-based phylogenetics that currently prevails in Bantu classification studies and open up new pathways in the field of lexical reconstruction, especially with regard to the subsistence and land use strategies of ancestral Bantu speakers. Through external interuniversity collaboration with expert teams archaeozoological, palaeoenvironmental and genetic data as well as phylogenetic modelling will be brought into the cross-disciplinary approach.

In this way, scholars working on different datasets will collaborate directly and tackle together challenging research questions in order to acquire a new transversal view on the interconnections between human migration, language spread, climate change and early farming in Late Holocene Central Africa and to transform the current thinking on the Bantu Expansion.