Diachronic Linguistics: Language Evolution
Diachronic Linguistics: How Languages Evolve
Diachronic Linguistics is concerned with:
- How languages change
- The processes that trigger the change
- The reasons for the changes
Two main issues dominated the early course of historical linguistics:
- Synchronic irregularity (hope-hoped vs. keep-kept)
- Cross-language similarities (why related languages have similar, although not identical, forms)
The Comparative Method and Language Reconstruction
The Comparative Method was used to establish the relationship between languages such as Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Germanic, and Celtic, and to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European, the language from which they had evolved. Linguists take cognates (words which have a similar form and the same or similar meaning in different languages) as the basis for their reconstruction. Therefore, cognates come from the same original language.
Steps for Language Reconstruction
In order to reconstruct a language, we have to follow some steps:
- We should work out which words are cognates and which ones are not.
- Then, we should work out groups of sounds which appear to come from the same original sound and list all sound correspondences.
- Then, we should work out which original sound in the proto-language has produced the sounds in the daughter languages:
- Changes must be plausible. Natural sound changes will be preferred to unnatural ones.
- Any reconstruction should involve as few changes as possible between the proto-language and the daughter languages.
- The reconstructed form should be the sound which has the widest distribution in the daughter languages.
- Reconstructions should fill gaps in phonological systems rather than create unbalanced systems.
Synchronic vs. Diachronic Linguistics
A synchronic study describes the structure of a language at a given time, not taking into account that changes are always taking place. Additionally, Saussure considered that changes affected not the system as a whole, but only individual elements. The synchronic viewpoint was first challenged in 1928 by Trubetzkoy and Jakobson, who claimed that the diachronic viewpoint has to take into account the interdependence of all the elements of a linguistic system. Any change will affect the whole system. For example, phonological changes can have consequences on the lexicon (Old English /y:/ > Middle English /i:/, e.g., Old English fyr > Middle English fire). Phonological changes can also have consequences at the morphological and syntactic level (Middle English reduction of unstressed vowels to /ə/, loss of Old English inflectional patterns, and loss of the case system, which led to a more strict word order).
Variation and Change
In a complete description of a language, there is always a ‘core’ or fixed structure and variation. Synchronic variation is the mechanism that enables change. Labov claimed that variation in pronunciation can be interpreted as ongoing sound change. He realized that variation and fuzziness, which had often been ignored, may indicate ongoing changes in language.
Pidgins and Language Contact
A pidgin is a language which develops as a contact language when groups of people who speak different languages come into contact. It usually has a limited vocabulary and a very reduced grammatical structure (e.g., New Guinea Pidgin: A plural suffix derived from English -es is used along with the plural marker ol. “ol liklik manggi” > “liklik manggis“).
Factors in Language Change
- External sociolinguistic factors:
- Foreign influence:
- Substratum theory: When a language community learns another language, the new language is modified by the linguistic patterns carried over from the native language.
- Adstratum influence: Borrowing between contiguous languages or dialects.
- Fashion: It was fashionable in the Middle English period to borrow words from French.
- Social causes: The originally plural pronoun you is also used as a singular pronoun.
- Foreign influence:
- Internal factors (linguistic and psychological factors):
- Functional need: The vocabulary has to adapt to our changing world. Words which refer to obsolete objects may be lost, while new words may be introduced to refer to new concepts or objects. (e.g., e-mail, dot-com)
- Simplification: A relative concept, because it may produce complexities in other parts of the system.
- Structural Pressure.