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Classification

Classification. I Comparative Method. Language Change. Contemporary English Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Old English (c. 1000) Faeder ure thu the eart on heofonum, si thin nama gehalgod. Question 1.

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Classification

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  1. Classification I Comparative Method

  2. Language Change Contemporary English Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name be kept holy Old English (c. 1000) Faeder ure thu the eart on heofonum, si thin nama gehalgod

  3. Question 1 • How do we know that the contemporary English and the old English, which look totally different from each other, are actually related? • Why are they so different?

  4. Filling the Gap Early Modern English (c.1600) Our father which are in heaven, hallowed be thy Name Middle English (c. 1400) Oure fadir that art in heuenes halowid be thi name

  5. Dialects Community Breaks Up A B C D Any new changes in a particular group will not be spread over to the others.

  6. Language Family Languages As Time Goes By A B C D More changes in different groups.

  7. Dialect Chain • Languages spoken in two adjoining regions are mutually intelligible, but the mutual intelligibility does not extend to the next region. A B C D

  8. Question 2 • What does it mean to say that two languages are “related”? If two languages show some similarities, can we say that they are related?

  9. A B C D Proto-language Proto-language Daughter languages

  10. Proto-Polynesian Proto-Polynesian Tongan Samoan Maori

  11. Question 3 • What is a subgroup? If two languages show some similarities, can we say that they belong to the same subgroup?

  12. Subgroup B C D E F G H I A

  13. Reconstruction • Principle 1: • The existence of systematic similarities too great to be explained by chance, e.g., a set of regular sound correspondences in the vocabulary.

  14. Sound Correspondence MāoriTahitianHawaiianMeaning ingoa i'oa inoa name mata mata maka eye matangi mata'i makani wind mate mate make dead ngutu ‘utu nuku mouth tangata ta'ata kanaka person tangi ta'i kani weep

  15. Sound Correspondence MāoriTahitianHawaiian i i i o o o a a a e e e u u u m m m ng ' n t t k

  16. Cognates Corresponding words in related languages are called cognates. ingoa - i'oa - inoa Each of these cognates is a reflex of the proto-form from which it is descended. *ingoa

  17. Two Kinds of Similarity • Shared retention A feature F of the Proto language remains unchanged in both languages. • Shared innovation A feature F of the Proto language has changed into F’ in both languages (i.e., the two languages underwent the same change.

  18. Shared Innovations • Principle 2: • Within a family, subgroups will show shared innovations from the proto-language.

  19. Question 4 • Shared retention cannot be used as evidence of a subgroup. Why?

  20. Shared Innovations A B C D E F G H I The changes that took place between the breakup of A and the later breakup of B will be reflected in E, F, and G, but not in H or I.

  21. Question 5 • What can we learn about the history of the speakers by studying a linguistic family?

  22. Diversity • Principle 3: • Greater diversity of daughter languages impliesa longer period of separation.

  23. Shared Innovations • Principle 4: • The larger the number of shared innovations in a subgroup, the longer the period of separate development before breakup of the proto-language.

  24. B and C share a few common innovations, forming a weak subgroup, while D and E share a great many, forming a strong subgroup. A B C D E Shared Innovations

  25. Homeland? • Principle 5: • The homeland of a language family was some part of the territory over which its daughter languages are now spoken.

  26. Hierarchy • Principle 6: • Assuming that the earliest migrations from the homeland were nearby areas, and that later migrations populated successively more distant areas, the highest order divisions in the family will be represented in the area near the homeland.

  27. Lexicostatistics • Swadesh List • First used in early 1950s. • A list of 200 meanings intended to be, as nearly as possible, universally known and culture independent e.g., ‘and’, ‘big’, ‘drink’, ‘head’, ‘mother’, ‘skin’, ‘throw’

  28. Cognate Percentage

  29. Assumptions • Some parts of the vocabulary of a language are much less subject to change than other parts. • This ‘core’ vocabulary is the same for all languages. • The actual rate of vocabulary replacement in the core vocabulary is the same for all languages at any period of time. Tested on 13 languages, an average vocabulary retention of 80.5% every thousand years.

  30. Glottochronology • Based on the lexicostatistic data and the following formula, the time-depth of a language can be calculated. t = logC 2logr where C is the percentage of cognates and r is the retention rate (.805)

  31. Time-depth of a Language (Pawley 1996)

  32. Question 5 • How reliable is lexicostatistics? • What kind of problems does it have?

  33. How Reliable? • Borrowing: e.g., Tongan words in East Uvea (85%) • Name avoidance: e.g., Tahitian (White 1967) poo ‘night’ is replaced by ru’i, mare ‘cough’ by hota during the reign of Pomare I

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