Cross-linguistic constraints and lineage-specific developments in the semantics of cutting and breaking in Japonic and Germanic

IF 1.7 2区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Linguistic Typology Pub Date : 2021-10-13 DOI:10.1515/lingty-2021-2090

John L. A. Huisman, R. van Hout, A. Majid

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract Semantic variation in the cutting and breaking domain has been shown to be constrained across languages in a previous typological study, but it was unclear whether Japanese was an outlier in this domain. Here we revisit cutting and breaking in the Japonic language area by collecting new naming data for 40 videoclips depicting cutting and breaking events in Standard Japanese, the highly divergent Tohoku dialects, as well as four related Ryukyuan languages (Amami, Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama). We find that the Japonic languages recapitulate the same semantic dimensions attested in the previous typological study, confirming that semantic variation in the domain of cutting and breaking is indeed cross-linguistically constrained. We then compare our new Japonic data to previously collected Germanic data and find that, in general, related languages resemble each other more than unrelated languages, and that the Japonic languages resemble each other more than the Germanic languages do. Nevertheless, English resembles all of the Japonic languages more than it resembles Swedish. Together, these findings show that the rate and extent of semantic change can differ between language families, indicating the existence of lineage-specific developments on top of universal cross-linguistic constraints.

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日语和日耳曼语义学的跨语言限制和特定谱系发展

在先前的类型学研究中，切割和断裂领域的语义变化在不同语言之间受到限制，但日语是否是该领域的异常值尚不清楚。在这里，我们通过收集40个视频片段的新命名数据来重新审视日本语言领域的切割和切割事件，这些视频片段描述了标准日语、高度分化的东北方言以及四种相关的琉球语(天美语、冲绳语、宫古语和八山语)中的切割和切割事件。我们发现日本语再现了先前类型学研究中证实的相同语义维度，证实了切割和断裂领域的语义变化确实受到跨语言的约束。然后，我们将新的日语数据与之前收集的日耳曼语数据进行比较，发现一般来说，相关语言比不相关语言更相似，日语比日耳曼语言更相似。然而，比起瑞典语，英语更像所有的日语。总之，这些发现表明，语族之间语义变化的速度和程度可能不同，表明在普遍的跨语言限制之上存在谱系特定的发展。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Linguistic Typology Multiple-

CiteScore

3.70

自引率

5.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Linguistic Typology provides a forum for all work of relevance to the study of language typology and cross-linguistic variation. It welcomes work taking a typological perspective on all domains of the structure of spoken and signed languages, including historical change, language processing, and sociolinguistics. Diverse descriptive and theoretical frameworks are welcomed so long as they have a clear bearing on the study of cross-linguistic variation. We welcome cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of linguistic diversity, as well as work dealing with just one or a few languages, as long as it is typologically informed and typologically and theoretically relevant, and contains new empirical evidence.