Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Reconstructing the Evolution of Indo-European Grammar

Carling, Gerd LU and Cathcart, Chundra LU (2021) In Language 97(3). p.561-598
Abstract
This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax, which use either the comparative-historical method or implicational typology. We find that our reconstruction yields strong support for a canonical model (synthetic, nominative-accusative, headfinal) of the protolanguage and low support for any alternative model. Observing the... (More)
This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax, which use either the comparative-historical method or implicational typology. We find that our reconstruction yields strong support for a canonical model (synthetic, nominative-accusative, headfinal) of the protolanguage and low support for any alternative model. Observing the evolutionary dynamics of features in our data set, we conclude that morphological features have slower rates of change, whereas syntactic traits change faster. Additionally, more frequent, unmarked traits in grammatical hierarchies have slower change rates when compared to less frequent, marked ones, which indicates that universal patterns of economy and frequency impact language change within the family (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Language
volume
97
issue
3
pages
38 pages
publisher
Linguistic Society of America
external identifiers
  • scopus:85116301707
ISSN
0097-8507
DOI
10.1353/lan.0.0253
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b2fedf4d-8088-4b5f-910a-2ea8e0bed7b8
date added to LUP
2019-10-10 09:16:19
date last changed
2023-12-04 01:21:31
@article{b2fedf4d-8088-4b5f-910a-2ea8e0bed7b8,
  abstract     = {{This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax, which use either the comparative-historical method or implicational typology. We find that our reconstruction yields strong support for a canonical model (synthetic, nominative-accusative, headfinal) of the protolanguage and low support for any alternative model. Observing the evolutionary dynamics of features in our data set, we conclude that morphological features have slower rates of change, whereas syntactic traits change faster. Additionally, more frequent, unmarked traits in grammatical hierarchies have slower change rates when compared to less frequent, marked ones, which indicates that universal patterns of economy and frequency impact language change within the family}},
  author       = {{Carling, Gerd and Cathcart, Chundra}},
  issn         = {{0097-8507}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{561--598}},
  publisher    = {{Linguistic Society of America}},
  series       = {{Language}},
  title        = {{Reconstructing the Evolution of Indo-European Grammar}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.0.0253}},
  doi          = {{10.1353/lan.0.0253}},
  volume       = {{97}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}