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Economy as a Third Factor in Language Change

Economy as a Third Factor in Language Change. Elly van Gelderen Arizona State University http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/elly.htm. Goals - outline. Language change as an area to see `third factors’ at work. Two Economy Principles Linguistic Cycles Feature Economy

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Economy as a Third Factor in Language Change

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  1. Economy as a Third Factorin Language Change Elly van Gelderen Arizona State University http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/elly.htm

  2. Goals - outline • Language change as an area to see `third factors’ at work. • Two Economy Principles • Linguistic Cycles • Feature Economy • Conclusions/speculations

  3. Third factor (FLB), e.g. Chomsky 2007 (1) genetic endowment, which sets limits on the attainable languages, thereby making language acquisition possible; (2) external data, converted to the experience that selects one or another language within a narrow range; (3) principles not specific to [the Faculty of Language]. Some of the third factor principles have the flavor of the constraints that enter into all facets of growth and evolution, [...] Among these are principles of efficient computation"

  4. If there are Principles, they should be visible in Lg Change Two main patterns (van Gelderen 2004 etc): a) Phrase to Head b) Up the tree: both phrases and heads Principles: acquisition and derivation

  5. (a) Spec > Head Full pronoun to agreement Demonstrative that to complementizer Demonstrative pronoun to article Negative adverb phrase to negation marker Adverb phrase to aspect marker Adverb phrase to complementizer

  6. and (b) higher in the tree On, from P to ASP VP Adverbials > TP/CP Adverbials Like, from P > C (like I said) Negative objects to negative markers Modals: v > ASP > T Negative verbs to auxiliaries To: P > ASP > M > C PP > C (for something to happen)

  7. Spec to Head and Merge over Move HPP XP Spec X' na wihtX YP not> n’t … Late Merge

  8. Lexical > Functional/Late Merge

  9. Third factor Economy accounts Head Preference Principle (HPP): Be a head, rather than a phrase, i.e. `analyze something as small as possible' Late Merge Principle (LMP): Merge as late as possible

  10. Two problems w/ HPP and LMP Minor: Move is `just’ internal merge Major: Language Change proceeds in a cycle. HPP and LMP are 2 stages but 2 more: (a) how is the head lost, (b) how is the specifier replaced

  11. Head > 0 is solvable: e.g. iconicity Null hypothesis of language acquisition A string is a word with lexical content. Faarlund (2008) explains that "the child misses some of the boundary cues, and interprets the input string as having a weaker boundary (fewer slashes, stronger coherence) at a certain point" My alternative: Feature Economy

  12. Some Micro-Cycles Negative (neg): neg indefinite/adverb > neg particle > (neg particle) Definiteness demonstrative > article > class marker Agreement emphatic > pronoun > agreement Auxiliary V/A/P > M > T > C Clausal pronoun > complementizer PP/Adv > Topic > C

  13. 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 > -not/-n’t after 1400

  14. The Linguistic Cycle, e.g. the Negative Cycle HPP NegP Spec Neg' na wihtNeg YP not> n’t … Late Merge

  15. Negative Cycle Arg/Adjunct Specifier Head affix semantic > [iF] > [uF] Once, there are only uF on e.g. ne, a new element is needed. Hence, the cycle.

  16. DP Cycle (old way) a. DP b. DP dem D'  D' (=HPP) D NP D NP art N  c. DP D' D NP -n>0 N renewal through LMP

  17. or through Feature Economy: a. DP > b. DP that D' D' [i-ps] D NP D NP [i-loc][u-#] N … the N [i-phi] [u-phi] [i-phi] Hence (1) *I saw the (2) I saw that/those.

  18. Demonstratives (1) demonstrative/adverb > definite article > Case/non-generic > class marker > 0 Old Norse (2) ok hinn siðasta vetr er hann var í Nóregi and the last winter that he was in Norway (Bjarni's Voyage 41.8) (3)konung-ar-nir king-P-DEF `the kings'. (4) ok var þann vetr ... and was that winter `and he was during that winter ....' (Fóstbræðra Saga 78.11)

  19. Doubles in Old Norse (1) þau in storu skip those the big ships `Those big ships‘. (2) þitt hitt milda andlit your the mild face `your mild face' (3) fé þat allt money that all `all that money'

  20. More change (Swedish etc) (1)bok-enbook-the (2) han den gamle vaktmästeren he the old janitor-DEF (2) den där bok-en the here bok-DEF `that book'. (3) denna bok(en) that book-DEF

  21. Changes DP Poss D' NP D nP Dem þau n’ `that’ n skip in [3NeuP] `the' DEM is spec or head in can move

  22. The History of English Interpretable features: (1) se wæs Wine haten & se wæs in Gallia rice gehalgod. he was wine called and was in Gaul consecrated (2) hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon how those-NOM.P nobles-NOM.P courage did 'how the nobles performed heroic acts' (Beowulf 3)

  23. loss of iF (1) gife to … þa munecas of þe mynstre give to … the monks of the abbey (Peterborough Chron 1150) (2) *the (Wood 2003: 69) (3) Morret's brother came out of Scoteland for th'acceptacion of the peax (The Diary of Edward VI, 1550s)

  24. Renewal (1) It was just I I was just looking at there them down there (BNC FME 662). (2) 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)

  25. Dutch-Afrikaans (1) die man daar that man there (2) Daardie teenstrydighede was egter nie those contradictions were however not

  26. St'át'imcets: all stages (1) ca ti=sxwápməx-a this ART-Shuswap-REF `This Shushap' (van Eijk 1997: 169) (2) DP ca D' D nP ti n' n NP -a sxwápməx (3) l-ča visible, proximal `here'.

  27. Feature Economy: select minimum from the lexicon Locative Specifier Head affix semantic > [iF] > [uF] > -- Head > (higher) Head > 0 [iF] / [uF] [uF] uF is a Probe

  28. Agreement and … cycles emphatic > full pronoun > head pronoun > agreement semantic > [i-phi] > [u-1/2] [i-3] >[u-phi]

  29. Head to head V>AUX go: motion > future have: possession>perfect P>AUX to: direction>mood on: location>aspect P>C for: location>time>cause after: location>time

  30. Cycles Cyclical changes are due to Economy • Negative, Demonstrative, Agreement, and Perfective Cycles, Clause marking Reason: • HPP and LMP, or • Semantic features are reanalyzed as grammatical (and interpretable as uninterpretable)

  31. After from P > C (1)Fand þa ðær inn æþelinga gedriht swefan æfter symble found then there in; noble company sleeping after feast (Beowulf 118-9) (2)& þær wearþ Heahmund biscep ofslægen, & fela godra monna; & [æfter þissum gefeohte] cuom micel sumorlida. `after this fight, there came a large summer-force' (Chronicle A, anno 871) (3) [Æfter þysan] com Thomas to Cantwarebyri `After this, Thomas came to Canterbury'. (Chronicle A, anno 1070)

  32. Percentages of demonstrative objects (Dem) with after and fronting Beowulf Chronicle Chronicle A <892 >892 Dem 2/65=3% 2/26= 8% 17/22= 77% Fronting 2/65=3% 7/26= 27% 12/22= 55%

  33. (1) After that the king hadde brent the volum (Wyclyf 1382, taken over in Coverdale 1535 and KJV 1611, from the OED). (2) Aftir he hadde take þe hooli Goost (c1360 Wyclif De Dot. Eccl. 22). (3) After thei han slayn them (1366 Mandeville174). Four stages: PP PP 900 (Chronicle A) – present PP (that) 950 (Lindisfarne) - 1600 (OED 1587) P that 1220 (Lambeth) - 1600 (OED 1611) C 1360 (Wycliff) - present

  34. From P > C PP CP P DP > C TP after after [u-phi] [3S] (u-phi) [ACC] [uACC] In English, no phi, but Germanic C-agreement.

  35. Back to the SMT Language is a perfect solution to interface conditions. Are both interfaces equally important?? Chomsky favors SEM/C-I: “the conflict between computational efficiency and ease of communication” is resolved “to satisfy the CI interface” (2006: 9). I want to suggest:

  36. The challenge: the dual nature of N and V: need for +/- interpretable f DP: Theta > discourse (position > morphology) V: Theta and TMA Macro Cycle goes from (a) to (b) to (a) … a) Movement links two positions and is thereby economical (=synthetic) = uninterpretable/EPP b) Avoid syncretism; Iconicity is economical (=analytic) = semantic and interpretable features

  37. Two `forces’ • Jespersen: "the correct inference can only be that the tendency towards ease may be at work in some cases, though not in all, because there are other forces which may at times neutralize it or prove stronger than it". • Von der Gabelentz (1891/1901: 251/256): "Deutlichkeit" ('clarity') and "Bequemlichkeit" ('comfort').

  38. And uF is `normal’ Chomsky (2002: 113) sees the semantic component as expressing thematic as well as discourse information. If thematic structure was already present in proto-language (Bickerton 1990), the evolutionary change of Merge made them linguistic. What was added through grammaticalization is the morphology, the second layer of semantic information.

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