Andreas Baumann

Eudesmanolides from Achillea pratensis

Abstract From flower heads of Achillea pratensis five eudesmanolides were isolated by repeated column chromatography and HPLC. The compounds were identified as tauremisin, arglanin, 4-epi-arglanin, 4α-hydroperoxy-4α-dehydroxy-arglanin and santamarin.

Proazulenes from Achillea asplenifolia

Abstract From flower heads of Achillea asplenifolia Vent. the eight major proazulenes were isolated by repeated column chromatography and HPLC. By 1 H NMR and mass spectral studies, especially by measurements of NOE effects, four compounds were shown to be the first 7,8-guaianolide derivatives found in the Achillea millefolium group. They were identified as 4α-hydroxy-6α-angeloxy-9α-acetoxy-5α H ,7α H ,8β H ,11α H -guai-1(10),2-dien-7,8-olide and the respective 6α-tigloxy, 6α-acetoxy and 4- epi derivatives. One of the proazulenes was identified as 8-deacetyl-4- epi -matricin. The other three proazulenes represent the same 10- epi -artabsin derivatives as recently found in A. roseo-alba and A. collina , namely 8α-acetoxy-10- epi -artabsin (achillicin), 8α-angeloxy-10- epi -artabsin and 8α-tigloxy-10- epi -artabsin.

A dynamical-systems approach to the evolution of morphonotactic and lexical consonant clusters in English and Polish

Abstract Consonant clusters appear either lexically within morphemes or morphonotactically across morpheme boundaries. According to extant theories, their diachronic dynamics are suggested to be determined by analogical effects on the one hand as well as by their morphological signaling function on the other hand. This paper presents a mathematical model which allows for an investigation of the interaction of these two forces and the resulting diachronic dynamics. The model is tested against synchronic and diachronic language data. It is shown that the evolutionary dynamics of the cluster inventory crucially depend on how the signaling function of morphonotactic clusters is compromised by the presence of lexical items containing their morpheme internal counterparts.

Word form shapes are culturally selected for indicating their morphological structure

Listeners recognize morphologically complex word forms by their phonotactic shapes. For example, the final consonant clusters /md/ in seemed, /ld/ in filled, or /ks/ in socks function as clues that prompt decomposition. At the same time, experimental work (Post, Marslen-Wilson & Tyler 2008, cf. also Marslen-Wilson & Tyler 1997 & 1998) has shown that such recognition strategies are over-applied to word forms that are not actually complex, but simply happen to be shaped like complex ones. Thus, listeners attempt to decompose not only actual past tense forms such as fill+ed or sign+ed, or actual plurals such as sock+s but also simple words such as build or find, or axe, which delays processing, and leads listeners up garden paths. Obviously, however, such problems arise only when morphologically produced sound sequences have homophones among morphologically simple items. As we have seen, this is true of final clusters such as /nd/, /ld/ or /ks/. It is not true of clusters such as final /md/, /vd/, or /gz/, however. The latter occur only in past forms such as seemed, or loved, or in plurals, genitives, or 3sg forms such as eggs, Meg’s or digs. Therefore, they signal complexity unambiguously and reliably. If speakers are sensitive to the problems resulting from ambiguities between morphologically produced clusters (as in fill+ed) and lexically simple ones (as in build), they should be biased against the use of words that are ambiguous in that respect (Dressler & Dziubalska-Kołaczyk 2006; Dressler, Dziubalska-Kołaczyk & Pestal 2010). Since morphotactically ambiguous sequences are abundant in natural languages, however, the processing difficulties they produce do not seem to prevent successful communication and can only be slight. They nevertheless ought to be detectable in long-term language change, which results from vast numbers of communicative interactions and iterated learning events, known to 408

Linguistic and non-linguistic correlates in the evolution of phonotactic diversity

Linguistic dynamics have been hypothesized to be driven by ecological factors such as population size or social structure (see Nettle, 2012 for an excellent overview). Particularly, there is an ongoing debate as to whether population size can be seen as an explanatory factor in the evolution of phonemic richness (Atkinson, 2011; Bybee, 2011; Hay & Bauer, 2007; Wichmann, Rama, & Holman, 2011; see also Moran, McCloy, & Wright, 2012 for critical discussion). In this regard, the evolution of larger sublexical constituents, i.e. sequences of sounds below the word level, has gained much less attention (but see Maddieson, 2013 or Rama, 2013). Moreover, studies on the connection between ecological factors and linguistic properties were primarily comparative in nature, although the parallel evolution of social structure and language in individual linguistic strands may also provide useful insights into the mechanics that drive language evolution (see Bybee, 2011; Pagel, Atkinson, & Meade, 2007; Trudgill, 2004). In this paper, we conceptualize phonotactic items (sequences of sounds) as culturally transmitted pieces of linguistic knowledge, i.e. competence constituents in their own right, which spread through populations just like single sounds, words or constructions (Croft, 2000; Ritt, 2004). Phonotactic items should therefore be subject to similar evolutionary pressures and mechanisms. We investigate the diachronic development of diversity of the phonotactic inventory in the history of English from Middle English to Present Day English (using historical data from PPCME2, PPCEME, PPCMBE and COHA, and phonological transcriptions from ECCE and CMU). We focus on word final phonotactics because changes are most likely to occur at this prosodically weak position, and for methodological reasons (fully phonologically analyzed historical texts are not available for early periods). We find that the diversity of word-final coda phonotactics has been increasing through the past 800 years, and that the 15

On the replicator dynamics of lexical stress: accounting for stress-pattern diversity in terms of evolutionary game theory

This paper accounts for stress-pattern diversity in languages such as English, where words that are otherwise equivalent in terms of phonotactic structure and morphosyntactic category can take both initial and final stress, as seen in ˈ lentil – ho ˈ tel , ˈ envoy – de ˈ gree , ˈ research N – re ˈ search N and ˈ access V – ac ˈ cess V . Addressing the problem in general and abstract terms, we identify systematic conditions under which stress-pattern diversity becomes stable. We hypothesise that words adopt stress patterns that produce, on average, the best possible phrase-level rhythm. We model this hypothesis in evolutionary game theory, predict that stress-pattern diversity among polysyllabic word forms depends on the frequency of monosyllables and demonstrate how that prediction is met both in Present-Day English and in its history.

Coalescent Assimilation Across Wordboundaries in American English and in Polish English

Abstract Coalescent assimilation (CA), where alveolar obstruents /t, d, s, z/ in word-final position merge with word-initial /j/ to produce postalveolar /tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ/, is one of the most wellknown connected speech processes in English. Due to its commonness, CA has been discussed in numerous textbook descriptions of English pronunciation, and yet, upon comparing them it is difficult to get a clear picture of what factors make its application likely. This paper aims to investigate the application of CA in American English to see a) what factors increase the likelihood of its application for each of the four alveolar obstruents, and b) what is the allophonic realization of plosives /t, d/ if the CA does not apply. To do so, the Buckeye Corpus (Pitt et al. 2007) of spoken American English is analyzed quantitatively. As a second step, these results are compared with Polish English; statistics analogous to the ones listed above for American English are gathered for Polish English based on the PLEC corpus (Pęzik 2012). The last section focuses on what consequences for teaching based on a native speaker model the findings have. It is argued that a description of the phenomenon that reflects the behavior of speakers of American English more accurately than extant textbook accounts could be beneficial to the acquisition of these patterns.

Cardenolide aus Ornithogalum nutans (2 n = 28), 1. Mitteilung / Cardenolides from Ornithogalum nutans (2 n = 28), Part

From leaves and bulbs of Ornithogalum nutans L. (2 n = 28), seventeen cardenolides were isolated by column chromatography, DCCC and TLC. The structure elucidation was performed by means of 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HH-Cosy, HC-Cosy and FAB-MS studies and identification of the sugar moieties by GLC after acid hydrolysis of the cardenolides. Sugar compounds were identified as digitoxose, 3-acetyl-digitoxose, 2-deoxy-allose, 6-deoxy-allose, rhamnose, xylose and apiose. Glycosides of 7β,15β, 16 α-trihydroxy-uzarigenin, 8β,16 α-dihy-droxy, 15-oxo-uzarigenin, 3 β, 11β-dihydroxy, 12-oxo, 18-nor-5 α-card-13-enolid, 11 α-hydroxygitoxigenin, 12-oxo,8, 14β-epoxy-uzarigenin, 8β-hydroxy, 15-oxo-uzarigenin and 12β-hydroxy-oleandrigenin are described for the first time, the presence of oleandrigenin-glycosides in the genus Ornithogalum was not known until now. Ornithogalum nutans L. shows a different cardenolide pattern from the second European species of the section Myogalum (LINK) PETERM. - Ornithogalum boucheanum (KUNTH) ASCHERS.

Cardenolide aus Ornithogalum nutans (2 n = 30), 2. Mitteilung+ / Cardenolides from Ornithogalum nutans (2 n = 30), Part 2+

From bulbs of Ornithogalum nutans L. (2 n = 30) nineteen cardenolides were isolated by column chromatography and TLC. Thirteen substances were structurally elucidated as glycosides of Strophanthidin, Sarmentosigenin, Sarmentogenin, Bipindogenin, 2a-Hydroxy-bipin-dogenin, Syriogenin, 7a-Hydroxy,12-oxo,8β,14β-epoxy-uzarigenin, 3β,11β-Dihydroxy,12-oxo, 18-nor-5 α-card-13-enolide, 3β, 11β-Dihydroxy, 12-oxo, 18-nor-5 α-carda-13,20(22)-dienolide, mainly by means of 1H, 13C NMR spectroscopy, FAB-MS and identification of the sugar moieties by GLC after acid hydrolysis of the cardenolides. Six of these glycosides were identified by cochromatography (HPLC and TLC) with authentic samples. The results obtained were discussed with regard to the close botanical relationship of Ornithogalum nutans L. and Ornithogalum boucheanum (KUNTH) ASCHERS.