Transcript Click here for the 6/2 Lecture.

Historical Linguistics
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1. Sound Change
2. Morphological Change
3. Syntactic Change
4. Semantic Change
2. Morphological Change
• Old English
• cow (sg), kine (pl)
– alternation
• stone (sg), stones (pl)
– suffixation of [z]
• Change: cow, cows
– suffixation of [z]
• Proportional Analogy
• => Generalization of a relationship
• a:b
::
c:x
• Relationship = N:N+[-z]
• stone:stones
::
cow:cows
• Regular > Irregular
• (suffixation > alternation)
• Older form: dive (Pres), dived (Past)
• drive:drove ::
dive:dove
• Relationship is the key.
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Verbs
sing:sang:sung
ring:rang:rung
bring:brang:brung
– (overgeneralization in children’s speech)
• But not nouns
• king(sg):kang(pl)
Paradigm Leveling
• Latin Rhotacism
• /s/ > [r] / V_V
• rūsal > rural
• opesa > opera
• corposeal > corporeal
• Remnants of [s]: rustic, opus, corpus
• Paradigm Leveling
• => Reduce irregularity created by regular
sound change
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Rhotacized
• Nom: honos
> honos
• Gen: honos-is
> honor-is
• Acc:
honos-em
> honor-em
• Paradigm Leveled
• Nom:
• Gen:
• Acc:
honos
honos-is
honos-em
> honor
> honor-is
> honor-em
3. Syntactic Change
• Old English OV order in embedded and
coordinate clauses
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• and
• and
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O
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his
•
his
S
Eraclyus
Eraclyus
swurd
sword
sona
immediately
V
ateah
drew
• English Word Order Change: SOV > SVO
• Phrase structure rules:
• S = NP VP
• VP = NP V >
VP = V NP
• Old English verb movement in main clauses
• Adv
• þā
• then
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S
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se
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the
V
ongeat
perceived
cyning
king
O
þæt.
that
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Phrase Structure Rules
S = NP Aux VP
VP = NP V
S’ = _ S
• Movement
• Move V to _ in [S’ _ S]
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S’
_
S
NP
VP
NP
V
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S’
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V
S
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NP
VP
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_
NP
• perceived the king
that
• Old English: Move V to _ in [S’ _ S]
• Modern English Questions
• Move Aux to _ in [S’ _ S]
• She has left.
• Has she left?
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S’
_
S
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NP
Aux
VP
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she
has
left
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• Aux
S’
S
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NP
• has
she
__
VP
left
• Modern English: Aux movement only
• Did she leave?
• *Left she.
• => Insert auxiliary verb
• Old > Modern English
• 1. Head-final VP > Head-initial VP
• (VP = NP V > VP = V NP)
• 2. Move V to _ in [S’ _ S]
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> Move Aux to _ in [S’ _ S]
4. Semantic Change
• Extension (Widening)
• dog, bird
– specific type > general class
• salary < salārium (Lat)
– ‘allotment of salt’ > ‘wages’
• Reduction (Narrowing)
• hound, fowl
– general class > specific type
• deer
– ‘animal’ > specific type of animal
• girl
– ‘child’ > ‘female child’
• Metaphorical Extension
• broadcast < ‘spread seeds’
• French feuille
– ‘leaf’ > ‘sheet of paper’
• Spanish firma
– ‘fix, make firm’ > ‘signature’
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Elevation
knight < ‘youth’, ‘servant’
Japanese samurai < saburafu ‘to serve’
pretty < ‘crafty, sly’
nice < ‘foolish’
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Degredation
spinster < ‘one who spins’
villain < French ‘farm worker’
disease < ‘discomfort’