Word tree reconciliation. Adopting biological methods and metaphors in historical linguistics

Talk, held at the 27th GeSuS-Jahrestagung "Sprach(en)forschung: Disziplinen und Interdisziplinarität" (University Library Warsaw, 2019/05/30).

Transcript

1. LC CA Word tree reconciliation: Adopting biological methods and metaphors in historical linguistics N. E. Schweikhard Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution CALC Project May 30th, 2019 1 / 20
2. Table of Contents 1 Models of Language Change 2 Tree Reconciliation in Phylogenetics 3 Word Tree Reconciliation 4 Derivation Trees 5 Project Goals 2 / 20
3. The tree model in historical linguistics describes divergence and change through time excludes horizontal relations large-scale: whole languages August Schleicher’s Indo-European tree from 1853 3 / 20
4. Every word has its own history Wave model and neighbor-net more inclusive: common ancestry and contact sometimes no difference between relations Dimensions of lexical change sound change borrowing word formation semantic shift Borrowing across Indo-European languages (Boc et al. 2010) 4 / 20
5. Modeling word formation Computational approaches borrowing included but typically not word formation both are not regular like sound changes → difficult to detect by algorithms Word formation unpredictable but follows tendencies patterns can show us the most likely history involves considering large amounts of data there is software for this in evolutionary biology → adopting tree reconciliation into linguistics 5 / 20
6. Tree reconciliation 6 / 20
7. Tree reconciliation a b c d A D C B Projecting a gene tree onto a species tree (adapted from Nakhleh 2013) 7 / 20
8. Differences & correspondences: biology & linguistics Processes: random mutation regular sound change horizontal gene transfer vs. borrowing gene duplication word formation Objects: species language genome vs. lexicon gene word 8 / 20
9. Incomplete lineage sorting in linguistics Sonne sol German Swedish Latin sol (List et al. 2016, Jacques and List forthcoming, graphic adapted from Nakhleh 2013) 9 / 20
10. Word trees proposed by Gray et al. 2007 first applied by e.g. Boc et al. 2010 Willems et al. 2016 big-data focus on borrowing yet only surface similarity no regular sound change, no word formation → A more exhaustive model is needed 10 / 20
11. Derivation trees: Cognates meaning ‘life’ aiōn āiiū ā́yu Vedic Avestan Greek Reconstructing the history of *h₂ai̯-u̯-on- and *h₂oi̯-u- 11 / 20
12. Derivation trees: Cognates meaning ‘life’ aiōn āiiū ā́yu Vedic Avestan Greek Reconstructing the history of *h₂ai̯-u̯-on- and *h₂oi̯-u- 12 / 20
13. Derivation trees: Cognates meaning ‘life’ aiōn āiiū ā́yu Vedic Avestan Greek Reconstructing the history of *h₂ai̯-u̯-on- and *h₂oi̯-u- 13 / 20
14. Derivation trees aiōn āiiū ā́yu ēwo iūnō yúvan dīrghā́yu darəgāiiū *h₂ai̯-u-on- *h₂oi̯-u- *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- OHG Greek Old Avestan Vedic Latin A family tree of *h₂ei-u- (based on Wodtko et al. 2008 and Mallory/Adams 2006) 14 / 20
15. Human- and machine-readable ID LANGUAGE CONCEPT FORM MORPHEMES COGNATES ROOTS 1 Old High German eternity ēwo ēw o 1 2 1 2 2 Ancient Greek life aiōn ai ōn 1 2 1 2 3 Old Avestan life āiiū āiiū 3 1 4 Old Avestan long-living darəgāiiū darəg a āiiū 4 5 3 3 4 1 5 Vedic life áyu áyu 3 1 6 Vedic long-living dīrghā́yu dīrgh á ā́yu 4 5 3 3 4 1 7 Vedic young yúvan yúv an 6 7 1 5 8 Latin (deity name) iūnō iū n ō 6 8 2 1 5 2 9 Indo-European life *h₂ai̯-u-on- h₂ai̯u on 3 2 1 2 10 Indo-European life *h₂oi̯-u- h₂oi̯u 1 1 11 Indo-European long-living *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- dl̩h₁gʰ ó h₂oi̯u 4 5 1 3 4 1 12 Indo-European young *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- h₂i̯u h₃on 6 7 1 5 13 Indo-European the young one *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- h₂i̯u h₃n on 6 8 2 1 5 2 Source Source-ID Target Target-ID Change *h₂ai̯-u-on- 1 aiōn 2 sound change *h₂oi̯-u- 3 *h₂ai̯-u-on- 1 e-grade, on-suffix *h₂oi̯-u- 3 *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- 4 compound with *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯- 7 dīrghā́yu 8 sound change ... ... ... ... ... aiōn āiiū ā́yu ēwo iūnō yúvan dīrghā́yu darəgāiiū *h₂ai̯-u-on- *h₂oi̯-u- *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- OHG Greek Old Avestan Vedic Latin 15 / 20
16. Human- and machine-readable ID LANGUAGE CONCEPT FORM MORPHEMES COGNATES ROOTS 1 Old High German eternity ēwo ēw o 1 2 1 2 2 Ancient Greek life aiōn ai ōn 1 2 1 2 3 Old Avestan life āiiū āiiū 3 1 4 Old Avestan long-living darəgāiiū darəg a āiiū 4 5 3 3 4 1 5 Vedic life áyu áyu 3 1 6 Vedic long-living dīrghā́yu dīrgh á ā́yu 4 5 3 3 4 1 7 Vedic young yúvan yúv an 6 7 1 5 8 Latin (deity name) iūnō iū n ō 6 8 2 1 5 2 9 Indo-European life *h₂ai̯-u-on- h₂ai̯u on 3 2 1 2 10 Indo-European life *h₂oi̯-u- h₂oi̯u 1 1 11 Indo-European long-living *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- dl̩h₁gʰ ó h₂oi̯u 4 5 1 3 4 1 12 Indo-European young *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- h₂i̯u h₃on 6 7 1 5 13 Indo-European the young one *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- h₂i̯u h₃n on 6 8 2 1 5 2 aiōn āiiū ā́yu ēwo iūnō yúvan dīrghā́yu darəgāiiū *h₂ai̯-u-on- *h₂oi̯-u- *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- OHG Greek Old Avestan Vedic Latin Source Source-ID Target Target-ID Change *h₂ai̯-u-on- 1 aiōn 2 sound change *h₂oi̯-u- 3 *h₂ai̯-u-on- 1 e-grade, on-suffix *h₂oi̯-u- 3 *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- 4 compound with *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯- 7 dīrghā́yu 8 sound change ... ... ... ... ... 16 / 20
17. Human- and machine-readable aiōn āiiū ā́yu ēwo iūnō yúvan dīrghā́yu darəgāiiū *h₂ai̯-u-on- *h₂oi̯-u- *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- OHG Greek Old Avestan Vedic Latin ID LANGUAGE CONCEPT FORM MORPHEMES COGNATES ROOTS 1 Old High German eternity ēwo ēw o 1 2 1 2 2 Ancient Greek life aiōn ai ōn 1 2 1 2 3 Old Avestan life āiiū āiiū 3 1 4 Old Avestan long-living darəgāiiū darəg a āiiū 4 5 3 3 4 1 5 Vedic life áyu áyu 3 1 6 Vedic long-living dīrghā́yu dīrgh á ā́yu 4 5 3 3 4 1 7 Vedic young yúvan yúv an 6 7 1 5 8 Latin (deity name) iūnō iū n ō 6 8 2 1 5 2 9 Indo-European life *h₂ai̯-u-on- h₂ai̯u on 3 2 1 2 10 Indo-European life *h₂oi̯-u- h₂oi̯u 1 1 11 Indo-European long-living *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- dl̩h₁gʰ ó h₂oi̯u 4 5 1 3 4 1 12 Indo-European young *h₂i̯-u-h₃on- h₂i̯u h₃on 6 7 1 5 13 Indo-European the young one *h₂i̯-u-h₃n-on- h₂i̯u h₃n on 6 8 2 1 5 2 Source Source-ID Target Target-ID Change *h₂ai̯-u-on- 1 aiōn 2 sound change *h₂oi̯-u- 3 *h₂ai̯-u-on- 1 e-grade, on-suffix *h₂oi̯-u- 3 *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯-u- 4 compound with *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó- *dl̩h₁gʰ-ó-h₂oi̯- 7 dīrghā́yu 8 sound change ... ... ... ... ... 17 / 20
18. Database pilot study about 100 Indo-European roots based on established findings, e.g. NIL: focus on productive word classes reliable etymologies manageable amount of possible reconstructions per attested word 18 / 20
19. Application possibilities Digitizing etymological relations allows for quantitative studies on sound correspondences and change directions of semantic shift word formation patterns through time interrelations between meaning and morphological productivity and supports us in consistency of etymological reconstruction making etymological data accessible 19 / 20
20. Thank you for your attention! Contact: schweikhard@shh.mpg.de http://calc.digling.org/ CALC members : Dr. Johann-Mattis List (Group leader) Dr. Yunfan Lai (Post-Doc) Dr. Tiago Tresoldi (Post-Doc) Mei-Shin Wu (Doctorate student) Nathanael E. Schweikhard (Doctorate student) Associated: Martin J. Kümmel 20 / 20