Phylogenetic Reconstruction Johann-Mattis List DFG research fellow Centre des recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale Team Adaptation, Integration, Reticulation, Evolution EHESS and UPMC, Paris 2016/10/13 1 / 45
Schleicher (1821-1868) “These assumptions, which follow logically from the results of our re- search, can be best illustrated by the image of a branching tree.” (Schle- icher 1853: 787) 5 / 45
Schmidt (1843-1901) “You can turn it as you want, but as long as you stick to the idea that the his- torically attested languages have been developing by multiple furcations of an ancestral language, that is, as long as you assume that there is a Stammbaum [family tree] of the Indo-European lan- guages, you will never be able to explain all facts which have been assembled in a scientifically satisfying way.” (Schmidt 1872: 17, my translation) 7 / 45
Schmidt (1843-1901) “I want to replace [the tree] by the im- age of a wave that spreads out from the center in concentric circles be- coming weaker and weaker the far- ther they get away from the center.” (Schmidt 1872: 27, my translation) 8 / 45
Trees are bad, because... they are difficult to reconstruct............ languages do not always split............ .......... ............ ............ 10 / 45
Trees are bad, because... they are difficult to reconstruct............ languages do not always split............ .......... ............ ............ they are boring, since they only model the vertical aspects of language history ............ 10 / 45
Trees are bad, because... they are difficult to reconstruct............ languages do not always split............ .......... ............ ............ they are boring, since they only model the vertical aspects of language history ............ Waves are bad, because nobody knows how to reconstruct them 10 / 45
Trees are bad, because... they are difficult to reconstruct............ languages do not always split............ .......... ............ ............ they are boring, since they only model the vertical aspects of language history ............ Waves are bad, because nobody knows how to reconstruct them languages still diverge, even if not necessarily in split processes 10 / 45
Trees are bad, because... they are difficult to reconstruct............ languages do not always split............ .......... ............ ............ they are boring, since they only model the vertical aspects of language history ............ Waves are bad, because nobody knows how to reconstruct them languages still diverge, even if not necessarily in split processes they are boring, since they only model the horizontal aspects of language history 10 / 45
Hugo Schuchardt (1842-1927) “We connect the branches and twigs of the tree with countless horizon- tal lines and it ceases to be a tree.” (Schuchardt 1870 [1900]: 11) 11 / 45
Indo-European soːwel- sunːoː- SUN Germanic soːl- SUN soːlikul- SMALL SUN Romance solej SUN French sol SUN Spanish zɔnə SUN German suːl SUN Swedish SEM ANTIC SHIFT M O RPH O LO G ICAL CH AN G E M O R PH O LO G ICA L CH A N G E MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE 13 / 45
to the Past The Geological Evidences of The Antiquity of Man with Remarks on Theories of The Origin of Species by Variation By Sir Charles Lyell London John Murray, Albemarle Street 1863 16 / 45
to the Past If we new not- hing of the existence of Latin, - if all historical documents previous to the fin- teenth century had been lost, - if tra- dition even was si- lent as to the former existance of a Ro- man empire, a me- re comparison of the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Wallachian, and Rhaetian dialects would enable us to say that at some time there must ha- ve been a language, from which these six modern dialects derive their origin in common. 16 / 45
to the Past: Uniformitarianism (C. Lyell) Uniformity of Change: Laws of change are uniform. They have applied in the past as they apply now and will apply in the future, no matter at which place. 17 / 45
to the Past: Uniformitarianism (C. Lyell) Uniformity of Change: Laws of change are uniform. They have applied in the past as they apply now and will apply in the future, no matter at which place. Graduality of Change: Change proceeds gradually, not abrupt. 17 / 45
to the Past: Uniformitarianism (C. Lyell) Uniformity of Change: Laws of change are uniform. They have applied in the past as they apply now and will apply in the future, no matter at which place. Graduality of Change: Change proceeds gradually, not abrupt. Abductive Reasoning: We can infer past events and processes by investigating patterns observed in the present, which becomes the “key to the interpretation of some mystery in the archives of remote ages” (Lyell 1830: 165) 17 / 45
to the Past: Uniformitarianism (A. Schleicher) Language Change is a gradual process (Schleicher 1848: 25). is a law-like process (Schleicher 1848: 25). is a natural process which occurs in all languages (Schleicher 1848: 25). universal process which occurs in all times (Schleicher 1863[1873]: 10f). allows us to infer past processes and extinct languages by investigating the languages of the present (see Schleicher 1848: 25). 18 / 45
to the Past: Summary It was not the direct exchange of ideas that lead to the de- velopment of similar approaches in biology and linguistics, but the astonishing fact that scholars in both fields would at about the same time detect striking parallels between both disciplines, both regarding their theoretical founda- tions and the processes they were investigating. 19 / 45
to the Past: Summary It was not the direct exchange of ideas that lead to the de- velopment of similar approaches in biology and linguistics, but the astonishing fact that scholars in both fields would at about the same time detect striking parallels between both disciplines, both regarding their theoretical founda- tions and the processes they were investigating. And linguists were the first to draw trees! 19 / 45
(Ringe, Warnow and Taylor 2002) “Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin” (Gray und Atkinson 2003) “Language classification by numbers” (McMahon und McMahon 2005) “Curious Parallels and Curious Connections: Phylogenetic Thinking in Biology and Historical Linguistics” (Atkinson und Gray 2005) “Automated classification of the world’s languages” (Brown et al. 2008) “Indo-European languages tree by Levenshtein distance” (Serva and Petroni 2008) “Networks uncover hidden lexical borrowing in Indo-European language evolution” (Nelson-Sathi et al. 2011) 22 / 45
(Ringe, Warnow and Taylor 2002) “Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin” (Gray und Atkinson 2003) “Language classification by numbers” (McMahon und McMahon 2005) “Curious Parallels and Curious Connections: Phylogenetic Thinking in Biology and Historical Linguistics” (Atkinson und Gray 2005) “Automated classification of the world’s languages” (Brown et al. 2008) “Indo-European languages tree by Levenshtein distance” (Serva and Petroni 2008) “Networks uncover hidden lexical borrowing in Indo-European language evolution” (Nelson-Sathi et al. 2011) 22 / 45
Concept German ID English ID Italian ID French ID HAND Hand 1 hand 1 mano 2 main 2 BLOOD Blut 3 blood 3 sangue 4 sang 4 HEAD Kopf 5 head 6 testa 7 tête 7 TOOTH Zahn 8 tooth 8 dente 8 dent 8 TO SLEEP schlafen 9 sleep 9 dormir 10 dormir 10 TO SAY sagen 11 say 11 dire 12 dire 12 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 23 / 45
Concept German ID English ID Italian ID French ID HAND Hand 1 hand 1 mano 2 main 2 BLOOD Blut 3 blood 3 sangue 4 sang 4 HEAD Kopf 5 head 6 testa 7 tête 7 TOOTH Zahn 8 tooth 8 dente 8 dent 8 TO SLEEP schlafen 9 sleep 9 dormir 10 dormir 10 TO SAY sagen 11 say 11 dire 12 dire 12 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 23 / 45
Languages (Pagel 2009) aspect species languages unit of replication gene word replication asexual und sexual reproduction learning speciation cladogenesis language split forces of change natural selection and genetic drift social selection and trends differentiation tree-like tree-like 24 / 45
Languages (Geisler & List 2013) Aspect Species Languages domain Popper’s World I Popper’s World III relation between form and function mechanical arbitrary origin monogenesis unclear sequence similarity universal (indepen- dent of species) language-specific differentiation tree-like network-like 26 / 45
coined by Richard Owen (1804–1892), who distinguished ‘homologues’, as ‘the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function’ (Owen 1843: 379), from from ‘analogues’ as an ‘organ in one animal which has the same function as another part or organ in a different animal’ (ibid.: 374). 29 / 45
coined by Richard Owen (1804–1892), who distinguished ‘homologues’, as ‘the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function’ (Owen 1843: 379), from from ‘analogues’ as an ‘organ in one animal which has the same function as another part or organ in a different animal’ (ibid.: 374). Nowadays, it commonly denotes a ‘relationship of common descent between any entities, without further specification of the evolutionary scenario’ (Koonin 2005: 311). 29 / 45
coined by Richard Owen (1804–1892), who distinguished ‘homologues’, as ‘the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function’ (Owen 1843: 379), from from ‘analogues’ as an ‘organ in one animal which has the same function as another part or organ in a different animal’ (ibid.: 374). Nowadays, it commonly denotes a ‘relationship of common descent between any entities, without further specification of the evolutionary scenario’ (Koonin 2005: 311). With respect to specific scenarios of common descent, molecular biologists characterize relationships between homologous genes further by distinguishing between orthology, paralogy, and xenology. 29 / 45
Indo-European *deh₃- *deh₃-no- Latin dare dōnum dōnāre Italian sole French soleil Swedish sol German Sonne Germanic *sōwel- *sunnō- Latin sol soliculus Indo-European *sóh₂-wl̩ - *sh₂én- A B List (2016) 30 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects German m oː n t - English m uː n - - Danish m ɔː n - ə Swedish m oː n - e List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 33 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects German m oː n t - English m uː n - - Danish m ɔː n - ə Swedish m oː n - e Fúzhōu ŋ u o ʔ ⁵ - - - - - - - - - - Měixiàn ŋ i a t ⁵ - - - - - k u o ŋ ⁴⁴ Guǎngzhōu j - y t ² l - œ ŋ ²² - - - - - Běijīng - y ɛ - ⁵¹ l i ɑ ŋ - - - - - - List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 33 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects German m oː n t - English m uː n - - Danish m ɔː n - ə Swedish m oː n - e Fúzhōu ŋ u o ʔ ⁵ - - - - - - - - - - Měixiàn ŋ i a t ⁵ - - - - - k u o ŋ ⁴⁴ Guǎngzhōu j - y t ² l - œ ŋ ²² - - - - - Běijīng - y ɛ - ⁵¹ l i ɑ ŋ - - - - - - 1 2 3 4 number of morphemes per word 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 relative frequency all words nouns Compounds in the basic vocabulary (Swadesh1952) across 23 Chinese dialects (data by Hamed and Wang 2006) 30% 50% List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 33 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects German m oː n t - English m uː n - - Danish m ɔː n - ə Swedish m oː n - e Fúzhōu ŋ u o ʔ ⁵ - - - - - - - - - - Měixiàn ŋ i a t ⁵ - - - - - k u o ŋ ⁴⁴ Guǎngzhōu j - y t ² l - œ ŋ ²² - - - - - Běijīng - y ɛ - ⁵¹ l i ɑ ŋ - - - - - - "MOON" "MOON" "SHINE" "LIGHT" List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 33 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects Fúzhōu Měixiàn Guǎngzhōu Běijīng INNO VATIO N INNO VATIO N INNO VATIO N BO RRO W ING LO SS INNO VATIO N INNO VATIO N List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 33 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects Fúzhōu Měixiàn Guǎngzhōu Běijīng Fúzhōu Měixiàn Guǎngzhōu Běijīng List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 34 / 45
Dialects Lexical Change in the Chinese Dialects Fúzhōu Měixiàn Guǎngzhōu Běijīng Fúzhōu Měixiàn Guǎngzhōu Běijīng List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 34 / 45
Dialects The Crux with Partial Cognacy List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) We cannot model partial cognacy sufficiently when restricting our analyses to binary gain-loss models, as they are common in Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. Partial cognacy is too frequent to be ignored, not only in Sino-Tibetan languages, but also in many other language families (Austro-Asiatic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai). If we define binary cognacy on the basis of common morphemes, the majority of the items in our datasets will become cognate and we will loose a great deal of the phylogenetic signal. If we define binary cognacy on the basis of identical morphemes in all words, the majority of the items in our datasets will become non-cognate, and we will again loose a great deal of phylogenetic signal. 35 / 45
Dialects The Crux with Partial Cognacy When dealing with language families in which compounding and morphological derivation is so frequent that it covers more than 30 percent of the basic vocabulary of the languages, we need to incorporate partial cognacy our phylogenetic models. List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 36 / 45
Dialects Testing the Method on Chinese Dialect Data List (2016, Journal of Language Evolution) 22 Chinese dialect varieties with Chinese character readings (basis vocabulary, data by Hamed and Wang 2006), 57 nouns in which Ancient Chinese forms expressing the concepts are known to us and are are also still preserved in at least one Chinese dialect, three reference phylogenies (Arbre by Sagart 2011, Southern Chinese by Norman 2003, Shùxíngtú by Yóu 1992), four models of lexical change (binary, unweighted, weighted, weighted and directed). 39 / 45
Dialects Interactive Application An interactive application showing all inferred evolutionary scenarios for the Arbre phylogeny by Sagart (2011) is available at http://digling.github.io/beyond-cognacy-paper/. 42 / 45
in historical linguistics, we need to increase the complexity of our models. In order to profit from existing biological approaches, we need to foster a close collaboration between computational linguistics, computational biologists, but also and especially between classical biologists and linguistics. We need to be extremely careful with our analogies. Instead of transfering methods blindly, we should not forget that we may have to adapt them first to meet the specific needs of the target discipline. 44 / 45
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