syntax.docx

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VARIATION AND CHANGE

1. PreliminariesVariation in language is similarly limited and some of it is similarly

conditioned. An example of a limited range of variants across languages is

vowels: language widely difffer in what vowels they have. But there is a limit to

variability: no language is known that does not have an (a)-that is, a low central or

back vowel. Another example of constraints on the distribution of the variants is

how voiced and voiceless bilabial stops occur across languages. Neither is present

in all languages; but all languages that have /p/ also have /b/.

Change is a temporally directed variation, with the variants keyed to

subsequent points along the time axis. Just as variation, change is ubiquitous both

in nature and in culture.

2. Variation and Change: some possibilitiesThe purpose of this section is to examine the metalanguage of variation and

change-that is, the various types of statements that are instrumental in describing

such phenomena in language in general and outside it.

The most obvious domain of linguistic variation is within a single language.

The first example comes from phonology. Consider the English words seal, slip,

spell, string, and sprain. The following observation can be offered:

a) In English, some words start with an /s/.This statement says that /s/ -initial words are possible in English but it

does not say which words start with an /s/.

b)In English, all words must start with an /s/.This statement has predictive power; however, it is clearly untrue; there

are many English words-pain, aim, and so on-that do not start with /s/.

c) In English, all words whose first three segments are consonants muststart with an /s/.

This statement is correct; there are words like stringand springbut no

words like ftring and fpring. This statement does not specify the entire

distribution of word-initial /s/ in English but it predicts some of its

occurences.


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d)In English, in some sentences, the auxiliaryverb precedes the subject.This statement describes a possible order pattern of English. It is of

permissive kind: it says that this order may occur in the language but it

does not specify the condition under which it must occur.

e) In English, in all sentences the auxiliary verb must precede the subject.This statement would be useful- but it is false. In other sentences, such as

The clown has poked a hole in the balloon, the auxiliary verb follows the

subject rather than preceding it.

f) In English, in all sentences that are WH-questions where the WH-word isnot the subject, the auxiliary verb must precede the subject.

(d), just like, (a), is an existential statement (e), just like (b), is an

unrestricted universal, (f), just like (c) is a restricted universal.

These examples illustrate statements about variation within a language.

But suppose we broaden the domain and wish to capture variation across

language.

The logical schemata of types about variation within and across languages.

Are given: S/L stands for sentences of a languages; or languages, A and B are

language properties.

(a)EXISTENTIAL STATEMENTS:In some S/L, there is A.

(b)UNIVERSAL STATEMENTS:(i) UNRESTRICTED UNIVERSALS:

In all S/L, there is A.

(ii)RESTRICTED UNIVERSALS:In all S/L, if there is B, there is also A.*

Existential statements pertain to the first question raised about variation at

the end of section 1: what variants occur?Universal statements adress the

distribution of variants. The research area that aims at formulating existential and

universal statements about cross linguistic variation is called language typology.

There are two subtypes of universal statements, such as unrestricted and

restricted universal. The latter are also called typological implications or


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typological universal; of their two terms, B is dubbed the implicans (implier)

and A is the implicatum (implied).

Universal statement can differ from their modality.

(a) If a language has prepositions and the demonstrative must follow thenoun, so must the adjective (Hawkins 1983;71;emphasis added)

(b)When the descriptive adjective must precede the noun, thedemonstrative and the numeral, with overwhelming more than chance

freuency, do likewise (Greenberg 1963;#18; emphasis added.

(a) Predicts the occurence of something with certainty and it is absoluteand (b) predicts something as probable but not certain and it is called probabilistic

(also called statistical).

Typological implication:

(a) In all languages, if the inflected verb must precede the subject in yes-noquestions, so must it in WH-question as well (Greenberg

1963;111;#11a)

(b)In all languages, if the inflected verb must precede the subject, the WH-words is normally initial (Greenberg 1963;111;#11b)

(c) In all languages, if yes-no question are differentiated from declarativesby an intonation pattern, the position of this pattern is reckoned from the

end of the sentence rather than from beginning (Greenberg

1963;111,#11b)

The three generalizations differ in how their implicans and implicatum

relate to each other.

The are three kinds of implicational universal like paradigmatic,

syntagmatic and reflexive. The diagrams below show the three subtypes of

restricted universals for cross-linguistic variation. The retangles are constructions

of a language; a and b are implicans and implicatum; dots stand for other

properties of constructions; arrows indicate the direction of implication.

(a)Reflexive implication:If a, the b (where a and b are features of the same constituent)


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.......a......

b

(b)Syntagmatig implication:If a, then b (where a and b are features of differrent consttuents co-

occuring in the same construction)

....a...b.....

(c)Pragmatic implication:If a, then b (where a and b are features of different constructions of same

language)

..........a........ .........b........

A typological universal with a maximal implicatum is one where the

implicatum includes all structural properties of a language except for the one

serving as the implicans, as in the following highly hypothetical example:

In all languages,

If the direct object stands before the verb, Then the language has

Demonstrative before the nounAgglutinating morphologyFricativesVowel harmonyAt least six synonyms for askAnd so on.

Linguist have long been searching for the magic implicans that would

allow for the predicttion of many, if not all, other structural characteristics; but

such so-called holistic typologies, or even one that is near holistic are yet to be

discovered (cf. Plank 1986).


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Here is the summary of the variations statement types instrumental in

describing cross-linguistic variation:

(1)STATEMENTS ABOUT CROSS-LINGUISTIC VARIATION DIFFERby logical type: they can be

Existential or universal

(2)UNIVERSAL STATEMENTS DIFFER(a)By their degree of certainty: they can be

Absolute orProbabilistic

(b)By the universe they pertain to:they can beUnrestricted orRestricted

(3)RESTRICTED UNIVERSAL STATEMENTS DIFFER(a)By the relationship between their terms: they can be

Revlexive (implicans and implicatum are properties of a singleconstituent); or

Syntagmatic (implicans and implicatum are properties of differentconstituent co-occurring in a constructions); or

Paradigmatic (implicans and implicatum are properties of differentconstructions co-occurring in the same language); or

(b)By the complexity of their terms:they may haveSingle implicantia and/or implicata; orMultiple implicatia and/or implicata.

The basic typology of statements about change parallels those about variation as

given in (*).

(a)EXISTENTIAL STATEMENTS:In some languages, A changes to B

In some languages, B has arisen from A.


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(b)UNIVERSAL STATEMENTS:(i) UNRESTRICTED UNIVERSALS:

In all languages, if A changes to anything, it must change to B.

In all languages, if A has arisen from something, it must have arisen

from B.

(ii)RESTRICTED UNIVERSAL:In all language, if there is C, then, if A changes to anything, it must

change to B.

In all languages, if there is C, then, if A arisen from something, it

must have arisen from B.

3. SYNTATIC VARIATION3.1Verb agreement

In some languages, verb agree with some of their arguments.

German ( has subjectverb agreement in person) Du sand-est den junger zur salma

You sent the boy to Salma

Er sante den junger zur salma

He sent the boy to salma

Hungarian ( shows both subjectverb agreement in person and withthe direct object in definiteness)

Te egy fui-t salmahoz kuldtel

You a boy to: salma sent sbj. Indef obj.

(you sent a boy to salma)

Te a fruit salmahoz kuldted.

You the boy to: salma sent sbj. def obj.

Lebanese Arabic ( has subjectverb agreement in gender, and verbagtreement with direct object and inderect object).

Verb agrees with subject Samiir baat-0 l walad la Salma

Samir sent the boy to salma

Salma baatit l walad la Samir


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Salma sent the boy to Samir

from the examples above show that verb agreement with the subject, with

direct object and with indirect object are all possible patterents in a language.

Verb agreement over the eight logical possibilities is shown in:

Type

Verbsubject

agreement

verb- direct.obj

agreement

Verbindirect

obj agreement language

Type I + + + Leb. Arabic

Type II + + - Hungarian

Type III + - - German, English

Type IV - - - Korean

Type V - + + None

Type VI - - + None

Type VII + - + None

Type VIII - + _ None

3.2 CONSTITUENT ORDER

The tree major sentence contituent(subject, direct object and verb ) have

six logically possible orders :

SVO SOV VSO VOS OVS OSVLanguage typological research of the past 40 years has found that the

order of major sentence constituent in language is not independent of how other

constituents are ordered.

Dryer found the following statistical implications to hold (1992 : 86-6 )

Most language that have OV order have postposition.


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Most language that have postposition have OV order Most language that have VO order have postposition. Most language that have postposition have VO order.1. Postposition in OV languages:

a)TurkishOV : Barbarlari yendiler

Barbarians they : defeated

( they defeated the barbarians )

Nadp : vapur ile

Boat with

(with boat )

2. Postposition in VO languages:a. Tagalog

VO : Dumadalao key Rosa si Maria

Visit Rosa Maria

( Maria is visiting Maria )

AdpN : para sa bin lana

For the window

(for the window )

3. GenN and OVa. Turkish

GenN : Mehmedin parast

Mehmed-GEN his: money

( Mehmeds Money )

4. Ngen and VOa. Tagalog

NGen : ang ama ni juan

CASE father of john

( Johns father )

The following simple, paradigmatic, probabilistic implications :

a. Most languages that have OV order have GenN order


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b. Most languages that have GenN order order have OV orderc. Most languages that have VO order have NGen orderd. Most languages that have NGen order order have VO order

John Hawkins notised that the languages in his sample that were exception

to the if OV then GenN pattern, such as Persia, had the adjective after the noun,

whereas the languages that bore out the trend had pre- nominal adjectives. This

observation points to the following generalization that held exceptionless for

Hawkins sample.

(a)All languages that have both OV and AdjN order have GenN order.3.3 ACCUSATIVE AND ERGATIVE SYSTEM

English provides multiple cues for differentiating subject and direct object.

First, there is word order: the subject is pre-verbal and the direct object is post-

verbal. Second, there is verb agreement: if the two noun phrases differ in number,

number marking on the verb picks out the agent. Third, there is case marking: if

one or both of the two noun phrases is a pronoun, case from signals whether the

pronoun is the agent or the patient.

Since there is no other noun phrase competing for subjecthood, one would

not expect any marking on the subject: it does not need to be differentiated from

anything else. And, if the subject of an intransitive sentence is nonetheless marked

in some way, all bets are off regarding the nature of the marking: it could be

marked the same way as the subject of the transitive sentence, or as the direct

object of the transitive sentences, or in some third way.

A(gent ) stands for transitive subject (even though not all transitive

subjects have the semantic participant role of agency), P(atient) stands for direct

object (even though not all direct objects are semantic patients), and S(ubject)

stands for intransitive subject.

(3) (a) P (b) A (c)

S

A

S

P

S

A P


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In English, only pattern (3a) is grammatical. The pattern in (3a) is called

accusative pattern; (3b) is labeled ergative pattern. It is taken from the name of

the case of the noun phrase. In an accusative case marking system, this special

case is that of the P, called the accusative case; the shared case of A and S is

called the nominative case. In an ergative pattern, the special case is that of the

A: it is called the ergative case, and the shared case of P and S is called the

absolutive case (or sometimes, confusingly, the nominative).

In most languages that have case markers, the markers are used to

differentiate S either from A or from P but not from both. Accusative and ergative

pattern may hold for other structural properties, such as verb agreement or word

order. If in a language, the verb agrees with both transitive and intransitive

subjects, the pattern is accusative because it shows a likeness between transitive

and intransitive subjects as opposed to objects. If, on the other hand, the verb

agrees with intransitive subjects and objects, the pattern is ergative because the

class of controllers includes intransitive subjects and objects but not transitive

subjects. Similarly, AVP and SV order is accusative-style since pre-verbal

position is shared by A and S; but PVA and SV is ergative since pre-verbal

position is shared by P and S. English follows the accusative pattern not only in its

pronominal case marking but also in terms of verb agreement and constituent

order: the verb agrees with both intransitive and transitive subjects; and both kinds

of subjects precede the verb.

However, verb agreement with pronoun objects is ergative: the past

participle of the perfective verb agrees in number and gender with intransitive

subjects and with pronominal objects.

If we compare intransitive sentences wit active transitive, we find that not

only pronominal case marking but also verb agreement and constituent order

conform to the accusative pattern.

Common characteristic of intransitive subjects and direct objects: they

both constitute alternative expressions for certain prepositional phrases.


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English is an accusative language only as long as we compare intransitive

sentences with active transitive ones. If in turn we compare intransitive sentences

with passive ones, the patterning is ergative.

4. SYNTACTIC CHANGE

Change in language is observable on two levels: in the language of a

community as a whole extending over countries and millennia, and in the

language of individuals over the span of a single human life. The former is called

historical change: we will to the latter as individual change. Language arises,

changes and dies on both levels. On the individual level, language changes

throughout our lives but change is most apparent at its onset as we learn our first

language or when we learn a second or third language and, at the other end, when

we can lose a language by lack of use or by aging or by becoming aphasic because

of brain injury or disease. The birth and the death of a language as we experience

them in our lives have parallels in historical change, as new languages constantly

evolve such as pidgins and creoles and languages die out in great numbers for

reasons of diminishing speaker populations.

4.1 THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF DEFINITE ARTICLES

Two facts jump out as we consider the histories of different languages.

First, the various stages are not specific to one language: the same stages recur

across languages. An earlier form of English may be the present-day form of

another language or it may be one lurking in future of another language.

Second, it is not only that the same stages crop up in different languages,

but contiguous sets of them do, too. That is, there are certain pairs of adjacent

stages that recur in the histories of different languages and they recur in the same

order. Historical change is generally unidirectional.

Definite and indefinite articles are very frequent words in English. These

grammatical elements are not universal across languages. The less-than-universal

distribution of articles across languages suggests that articles can arise and fade

out in the course of linguistic history.

The process of demonstrative evolving into definite articles by losing

some of their form and some of their meaning is comparable to agreement


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markers developing out of pronouns. The change is instance of

grammaticalization.

Definite articles may arise from other sources, such as numeral classifiers

and verbs, and demonstratives can turn into other grammatical elements such as

conjunctions and third person pronouns. But those instances where the definite

article comes from a demonstrative share a characteristic: the source is always a

distal demonstrative- that, rather than this.

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