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Economy as a Third Factor in Language Change Elly van Gelderen Arizona State University http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/elly.htm
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Goals - outline Language change as an area to see `third factors’ at work. Two Economy Principles Linguistic Cycles Feature Economy Conclusions/speculations
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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"
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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
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(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
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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)
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Spec to Head and Merge over Move HPP XP SpecX' na wihtXYP not> n’t… Late Merge
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Lexical > Functional/Late Merge
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Negative Cycle in Old English 450-1150 CE a.no/neearly Old English b.ne(na wiht/not)after 900, esp S c.(ne)notafter 1350 d.not>-not/-n’tafter 1400
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The Linguistic Cycle, e.g. the Negative Cycle HPP NegP SpecNeg' na wihtNegYP not> n’t… Late Merge
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Negative Cycle Arg/AdjunctSpecifierHeadaffix semantic>[iF]>[uF] Once, there are only uF on e.g. ne, a new element is needed. Hence, the cycle.
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DP Cycle (old way) a.DPb.DP demD' D'(=HPP) DNPDNP artN c.DP D' DNP -n>0N renewal through LMP
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or through Feature Economy: a.DP>b.DP thatD'D' [i-ps]DNPDNP [i-loc][u-#]N…theN [i-phi][u-phi] [i-phi] Hence (1)*I saw the (2)I saw that/those.
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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 lastwinterthathe was in Norway (Bjarni's Voyage 41.8) (3)konung-ar-nir king-P-DEF `the kings'. (4)okvarþannvetr... andwasthatwinter `and he was during that winter....' (Fóstbræðra Saga 78.11)
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Doubles in Old Norse (1)þauinstoruskip thosethebigships `Those big ships‘. (2)þitthittmilda andlit yourthemildface `your mild face' (3)féþatallt moneythatall `all that money'
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More change (Swedish etc) (1)bok-enbook-the (2)handengamlevaktmästeren hetheoldjanitor-DEF (2)dendärbok-en theherebok-DEF `that book'. (3)dennabok(en) thatbook-DEF
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Changes DP PossD' NPDnP Demþaun’ `that’ nskip in[3NeuP] `the' DEM is spec or head in can move
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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)
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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)
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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)
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Dutch-Afrikaans (1)die man daar that man there (2)Daardie teenstrydighede was egter nie those contradictions were however not
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St'át'imcets: all stages (1)c ati=sxwápməx-a thisART-Shuswap-REF `This Shushap' (van Eijk 1997: 169) (2)DP c aD' DnP tin' nNP -asxwápməx (3) l-č a visible, proximal `here'.
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Feature Economy: select minimum from the lexicon LocativeSpecifierHead affix semantic>[iF]>[uF]>-- Head>(higher) Head>0 [iF] / [uF][uF] uF is a Probe
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Agreement and … cycles emphatic > full pronoun > head pronoun> agreement semantic > [i-phi] > [u-1/2] [i-3] >[u-phi]
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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
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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)
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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)
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Percentages of demonstrative objects (Dem) with after and fronting BeowulfChronicle Chronicle A 892 Dem2/65=3%2/26= 8%17/22= 77% Fronting2/65=3%7/26= 27% 12/22= 55%
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(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: PPPP900 (Chronicle A) – present PP (that)950 (Lindisfarne) - 1600 (OED 1587) P that1220 (Lambeth) - 1600 (OED 1611) C1360 (Wycliff) - present
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From P > C PPCP PDP>CTPafter [u-phi][3S](u-phi) [ACC][uACC] In English, no phi, but Germanic C-agreement.
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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:
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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
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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').
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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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