Robert Mailhammer

Automated dating of the world’s language families based on lexical similarity

This paper describes a computerized alternative to glottochronology for estimating elapsed time since parent languages diverged into daughter languages. The method, developed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) consortium, is different from glottochronology in four major respects: (1) it is automated and thus is more objective, (2) it applies a uniform analytical approach to a single database of worldwide languages, (3) it is based on lexical similarity as determined from Levenshtein (edit) distances rather than on cognate percentages, and (4) it provides a formula for date calculation that mathematically recognizes the lexical heterogeneity of individual languages, including parent languages just before their breakup into daughter languages. Automated judgments of lexical similarity for groups of related languages are calibrated with historical, epigraphic, and archaeological divergence dates for 52 language groups. The discrepancies between estimated and calibration dates are found to be on average 29% as large as the estimated dates themselves, a figure that does not differ significantly among language families. As a resource for further research that may require dates of known level of accuracy, we offer a list of ASJP time depths for nearly all the world’s recognized language families and for many subfamilies.

Adding typology to lexicostatistics: a combined approach to language classification

Abstract The ASJP project aims at establishing relationships between languages on the basis of the Swadesh word list. For this purpose, lists have been collected and phonologically transcribed for almost 3,500 languages. Using a method based on the algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Cybernetics and Control Theory 10: 707–710, 1966), a custom-made computer program calculates the distances between all pairs of languages in the database. Standard software is used to express the relationships between languages graphically. The current article compares the results of our lexicon-based approach with the results of a similar exercise that takes the typological variables contained in the WALS database as a point of departure. We establish that the latter approach leads to even better results than the lexicon-based one. The best result in terms of correspondence with some well-established genetic and areal classifications, however, is attained when the lexical and typological methods are combined, especially if we select both the most stable Swadesh items and the most stable WALS variables.

Towards an Aspect-Based Analysis of the Verb Categories of Amurdak

This paper proposes a reanalysis of the TAM categories of Amurdak. Previous work has assumed a contrast of tense categories. It will be shown that such an analysis is inadequate, as it cannot accurately account for the data, because the morphemes representing these categories do not have the function to localize events in time. Instead, it is posited that the Amurdak verb possesses a contrast between a perfective and an imperfective aspect. This permits an accurate explanation of the data, and it is well-supported cross-linguistically. In addition, it opens up interesting questions from the viewpoint of comparative areal and typological linguistics.

Type frequency influences phonological generalizations: Eliminating stressed open syllables with short vowels in West Germanic

A pivotal process in the loss of phonological quantity in West Germanic languages is what is traditionally known as Open Syllable Lengthening. Existing accounts have found no explanation for why languages such as English apply this change in less than 50% of the relevant cases. This paper presents the results of a corpus investigation of four West Germanic languages showing that whether Open Syllable Lengthening occurs in more than 50% of predicted cases correlates with the ratio of closed syllables with short vowels to open syllables with long vowels. We interpret this as the result of frequency effects that have markedly shaped the application of Open Syllable Lengthening in West Germanic. This has implications for phonological change in general, as well as for the relationship between stress and syllable structure in West Germanic languages. *

Thoughts on the genesis and the development of syllable cut in English

Abstract Since its renaissance in a series of papers by Theo Vennemann, the concept of syllable cut has been applied to a variety of both synchronic and diachronic problems, especially in the Germanic languages. Further investigation has been able to clarify the phonetic realisation of syllable cut, and has also explored different typological manifestations. However, although this phonological concept has been particularly successful in explaining the motivation behind sound changes in the history of English and German, the questions of how and why syllable cut originated have so far only been touched upon. This paper investigates the genesis and the development of syllable cut in English. It is argued that due to phonological developments in Old English it was possible to generalise the structural and segmental properties of syllables with geminate consonants to all closed syllables with short vowels. This is supported by a quantitative pilot study, which shows that Old English actually possessed a considerable amount of words with geminates, which could have formed a basis for the proposed generalisation. Comparative evidence from Latin and German renders further support for this assumption.

Reanalyzing the morphology and semantics of verbal plural marking in Quechan

In this paper, we re-investigate the morphology and semantics of verbal plurality in Quechan (Yuma). We propose a systematic account in which one marker of verbal plurality only targets a particular argument of the verb, but others are better analyzed as expressing pluractionality. There are two markers of pluractionality: one that has scope over O or the event and one that has scope over O, S/A, or the event. We show that both pluractionals are examples of outer pluractionality.

Lexical and structural etymology : beyond word histories

This pioneer volume assembles thirteen etymological studies covering a broad range of languages, focusing in particular Australian Indigenous languages. Etymology is understood in a broad sense as a type of historical research that aims at investigating the origin of a word (lexical etymology) or structure (structural etymology). The phenomena investigated in the contributions comprise Australian Indigenous place names and kinship terms, constructions and word histories in Oceanic languages, typological investigations and papers on the methodology of etymological research.

Stop, approximant, and timing slot: The changing faces of the velar stop in Iwaidja

Limited access to speakers and incomplete lexical knowledge are common challenges facing phonetic description of under-documented languages. We address these challenges by taking a multi-dimensional approach, seeking to constrain our phonetic description by covariation across acoustic and articulatory parameters. We demonstrate the approach through an analysis of velar consonsants in the Australian Aboriginal language Iwaidja. Existing accounts contrast a velar stop /k/ with a velar approximant /ɰ/ in word-medial position (Evans 2009). Converging evidence from ultrasound images of the tongue body and acoustic analysis of intensity data reveal that the posited opposition is not consistent across speakers (N = 4) and lexical items. Unsupervised categorization of the phonetic data indicates two phonetic categories, appropriately labelled as [a] and [ɰ], which do not map consistently to dictionary labels in existing descriptions. We conclude that speaker-specific allophonic variation is the result of an ongoing process of lenition of /k/ between sonorant segments which has not yet phonologized. More broadly, integrating phonetic dimensions revealed categories that were ill-defined on the basis of just acoustic or articulatory measures alone. Depth of analysis, characterized by phonetic multi-dimensionality, may support robust generalization where broad analysis (multiple speakers, large corpora) are impractical or impossible.Limited access to speakers and incomplete lexical knowledge are common challenges facing phonetic description of under-documented languages. We address these challenges by taking a multi-dimensional approach, seeking to constrain our phonetic description by covariation across acoustic and articulatory parameters. We demonstrate the approach through an analysis of velar consonsants in the Australian Aboriginal language Iwaidja. Existing accounts contrast a velar stop /k/ with a velar approximant /ɰ/ in word-medial position (Evans 2009). Converging evidence from ultrasound images of the tongue body and acoustic analysis of intensity data reveal that the posited opposition is not consistent across speakers (N = 4) and lexical items. Unsupervised categorization of the phonetic data indicates two phonetic categories, appropriately labelled as [a] and [ɰ], which do not map consistently to dictionary labels in existing descriptions. We conclude that speaker-specific allophonic variation is the result of an ongoi...

Phonological Weakness in English: From Old English to Present-day English

Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad & Edward Finegan. 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman. Brinton, Laurel J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2005. Lexicalization and Language Change. Research Surveys in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. Mair, Christian. 2006. Twentieth-Century English. History, Variation, and Standardization. Studies in English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

The wolf in sheep's clothing : camouflaged borrowing in modern German

This article addresses a phenomenon of language contact that has not received much attention in mainstream contact linguistics, namely borrowing via a mechanism Zuckermann (2003) calls multisourced neologisation. Multisourced neologisation is a subtype of Zuckermanns larger class of camouflaged borrowing, and constitutes a special form of calquing in which the calque is phonetically similar to the source language material. It has much in common with folk etymology and is sometimes identified with it, but there are good theoretical reasons to keep the two phenomena apart. Though German is well known for its calquing ability, the application of this special type of calquing has gone virtually unnoticed in the literature as well as in the ongoing public debate over the excessive influx of loanwords. This paper shows that multisourced neologisation is not uncommon in the integration of elements borrowed from English into German, and argues that factors favouring its use include lexical and structural congruities between both languages as well as the relatively high transparency of English to the average speaker of German. Thus, though German does not belong to the protypical language groups using multisourced neologisation that are described by Zuckermann (2003), special circumstances prompt the application of this and other methods of camouflaged borrowing.