Journal of Language Evolution最新文献

Derivational morphology and suffixing bias on linguistic and nonlinguistic material 语言和非语言材料上的派生词形和后缀偏误

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2024-08-22 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzae005

Leona Polyanskaya, Stavros Skopeteas, Peter Halama, Robin Hollenbach, Mikhail Ordin

{"title":"Derivational morphology and suffixing bias on linguistic and nonlinguistic material","authors":"Leona Polyanskaya, Stavros Skopeteas, Peter Halama, Robin Hollenbach, Mikhail Ordin","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzae005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzae005","url":null,"abstract":"Across world languages, grammatical meanings tend to be expressed by suffixes. Whether this bias is defined by shaping language so that it is easily processed by domain-general cognitive mechanisms or whether the bias is specific to the language domain has not been resolved. Most evidence supporting these competing hypotheses focuses on the effect of suffixing bias on inflectional morphology and ignores derivational morphology. Here, we explored suffixing bias in German and Slovak populations. These languages are strongly suffixing in terms of inflectional morphology but differ in verbal derivational morphology. Verbal prefixes can be detached from the root in the German language and are always attached to the root in the Slovak language. We explored whether suffixing bias can be observed in both populations while detecting and memorizing linguistic and nonlinguistic sequences in a continuous sensory input by means of statistical learning mechanisms. We found that suffixes facilitate statistical learning more than prefixes on linguistic material, and the effect was not observed on nonlinguistic material, suggesting that suffixing bias is specific to speech. When people are forced to choose between suffixed and prefixed sequences from the familiarization stream, German speakers show a stronger preference for suffixed sequences, while Slovak speakers do not show any preference; hence, properties of derivational morphology of the ambient language can modulate suffixing bias.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142181610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of pitch-accent systems based on accentual class merger: a new method applied to Japanese dialects 基于重音类合并的音高-重音系统贝叶斯系统发育分析：一种应用于日本方言的新方法

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2024-07-22 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzae004

Takuya Takahashi, Ayaka Onohara, Yasuo Ihara

{"title":"Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of pitch-accent systems based on accentual class merger: a new method applied to Japanese dialects","authors":"Takuya Takahashi, Ayaka Onohara, Yasuo Ihara","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzae004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzae004","url":null,"abstract":"Unlike studies of the evolutionary relationship between languages, the dialect-level variation within a language has seldom been studied within the framework of a phylogenetic tree, because frequent lexical borrowing muddles the evidence of shared ancestry. The phonological history of Japanese is an exceptional case study where the phenomenon called accentual class merger enables the phylogenetic analysis of dialectal pitch-accent systems in a way that is not subject to borrowing. However, previous studies have lacked statistical analysis and failed to evaluate the relative credence of alternative hypotheses. Here we developed a novel substitution model that describes the mutation of pitch-accent systems driven by accentual class merger and integrated the model into the framework of Bayesian phylogenetic inference with geographical diffusion. Applying the method to data on the pitch-accent variation in modern Japanese dialects and historical documents collected from literature, we reconstructed the evolutionary history and spatial diffusion of pitch-accent systems. Our result supports the monophyly of each of three groups of pitch-accent systems in conventional categorization, namely Tokyo type, Keihan type, and N-kei (N-pattern) type of Kyushu, whereas the monophyly of the Tokyo type has been highly controversial in previous studies. The divergence time of the mainland pitch-accent systems was estimated to be from mid-Kofun to early Heian period. Also, it is suggested that the modern Kyoto dialect did not inherit its accent patterns from Bumoki but from an unrecorded lineage which survived from the Muromachi period. Analyses on geographical diffusion suggest that the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of all the taxa and that of Keihan type were located in or around the Kinki region, whereas the MRCA of N-kei type was located in northern to central Kyushu. The geographical location of the MRCA of Tokyo type remains unclear, but the Kinki and Kanto regions are the most plausible candidates.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141785778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The evolution of evolutionary linguistics 进化语言学的演变

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2024-07-02 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzae003

Poonam Brar, Chico Q Camargo

{"title":"The evolution of evolutionary linguistics","authors":"Poonam Brar, Chico Q Camargo","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzae003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzae003","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a scientometric study of the evolution of evolutionary linguistics, a multidisciplinary field that investigates the origin and evolution of language. We apply network science methods to analyse changes in the connections among core concepts discussed in the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database, a searchable database of causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics. Our analysis includes a multipartite network of 416 papers, 742 authors, and 1,786 variables such as ‘population birth rate’ and ‘linguistic complexity’. Our findings indicate a significant increase in the size of concept networks from 1886 to 2022, providing an account of the growth and diversification of evolutionary linguistics as a field. We describe eight major clusters of concepts, and characterize the connections within and between clusters. Finally, we identify hypotheses cutting across clusters of concepts that have a high-betweenness centrality, implying that they might have a higher impact on the field if proven right (or wrong). Furthermore, we discuss the role of databases in cultural evolution and scientometrics, emphasizing the value of interdisciplinary connections and the potential for further cross-disciplinary collaboration in the field of Evolutionary Linguistics.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":"145 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141523232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Evolutionary pathways of complexity in gender systems 性别系统复杂性的进化途径

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2024-03-06 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzae001

Olena Shcherbakova, Marc Allassonnière-Tang

{"title":"Evolutionary pathways of complexity in gender systems","authors":"Olena Shcherbakova, Marc Allassonnière-Tang","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzae001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzae001","url":null,"abstract":"Humans categorize the experience they encounter in various ways, which is mirrored, for instance, in grammatical gender systems of languages. In such systems, nouns are grouped based on whether they refer to masculine/feminine beings, (non-)humans, (in)animate entities, or objects with specific shapes. Languages differ greatly in how many gender assignment rules are incorporated in gender systems and how many word classes carry gender marking (gender agreement patterns). It has been suggested that these two dimensions are positively associated as numerous assignment rules are better sustained by numerous agreement patterns. We test this claim by analyzing the correlated evolution (Continuous method in BayesTraits) and making the causal inferences about the relationships (phylogenetic path analysis) between these 2 dimensions in 482 languages from the global Grambank database. By applying these methods to linguistic data matched to phylogenetic trees (a world tree and individual families), we evaluate whether various types of gender assignment rules (semantic, phonological, and unpredictable) are causally linked to more gender agreement patterns on the global level and in individual language families. Our results on the world language tree suggest that semantic rules are weakly positively correlated with gender agreement and that the development of agreement patterns is facilitated by different rules in individual families. For example, in Indo-European languages, more agreement patterns are caused by the presence of phonological and unpredictable rules, while in Bantu languages, the driving force of agreement patterns is the variety of semantic rules. Our study shows that the relationships between agreement and rules are family-specific and yields support to the idea that more distinct rules and/or rule types might be more robust in languages with more pervasive gender agreement.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":"109 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140073417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Evolution of Pantomime in Dyadic Interaction. A Motion Capture Study 二元相互作用下哑剧的演化。动作捕捉研究

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2023-09-19 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzad010

Marek Placiński, Przemysław Żywiczyński, Theresa Matzinger, Marta Sibierska, Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska, Anna Szala, Sławomir Wacewicz

{"title":"Evolution of Pantomime in Dyadic Interaction. A Motion Capture Study","authors":"Marek Placiński, Przemysław Żywiczyński, Theresa Matzinger, Marta Sibierska, Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska, Anna Szala, Sławomir Wacewicz","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzad010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Due to the robust iconic potential of visual representations, gestural, and pantomimic hypotheses of language origins are well suited to provide solutions to the bootstrapping problem: how to begin communicating when no signs yet exist. However, the one-off, unstandardised nature of improvised gestures and pantomimes implies substantial costs in terms of time, cognitive effort, and replication fidelity. Hence, gestural and pantomimic hypotheses point to pressures for efficiency that would streamline the originally unwieldy embodied representations into forms that are progressively reduced, take up less space and time, and are less costly to produce. Pantomimic theories of language origins are especially interesting from this perspective since they put a spotlight on the transition from whole-body pantomimes into manual-only gestures. These processes, which we refer to as reduction and manual specialisation, have been virtually unaddressed with direct measurement. We report an experiment in which participants used whole-body pantomimes to communicate a set of transitive actions. Motion-capture technology was used to measure the kinematic characteristics of participants’ movements. In line with the prediction of pantomimic hypotheses of language origins, we saw an increase in the ratio of hand and arm movements versus the movements of other bodily articulators, suggesting a gradual transition from more costly whole-body pantomime to more economic manual gesture. We also found that with successive rounds of interaction, the volume of participants’ movements and the path travelled by their bodily articulators decreased.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135010728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Iconicity in the emergence of a phonological system? 语音系统出现时的象似性？

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2023-07-15 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzad009

Mara Moita, A. Abreu, Ana Mineiro

{"title":"Iconicity in the emergence of a phonological system?","authors":"Mara Moita, A. Abreu, Ana Mineiro","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzad009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Iconicity has been described as an impetus for creating sign forms in emerging sign languages and forming signs in established sign languages. Iconic signs are defined as spontaneous or stable signs that directly reflect the representation of their referent. In established sign languages, iconic signs have phonological features. Regarding the link between the motivation for iconic signs and phonological features, we aim to investigate how iconicity might influence the emergence of a phonological system along with the evolution of a new sign language by observing how the rise of a phonological system might be revealed by the evolution of emerging iconic gestures and signs in a new sign language. For this purpose, we inventoried and coded the iconicity nature and phonological structure of 200 signed lexical items collected in two moments of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language (LGSTP) emergence: at T1 (after 2 years since the deaf habitants initiated their social meetings) and T2 (8 years subsequent to T1 data collection). In the 8 years of LGSTP’s emergence, we found a dominance of iconic signs in tandem with changes in the signs’ internal structure. The handshape is revealed to be the phonological parameter with the greatest development, presenting itself as more complex. The LGSTP lexicon reveals that iconicity seems to prompt the emergence of sign forms. However, iconic strategies remain stable across the evolution of the emergent signs and are independent of the internal structure change of the sign.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47486693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Constraints on communicating the order of events in stories through pantomime 通过哑剧传达故事中事件顺序的限制

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2023-07-12 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzad008

Marta Sibierska, Przemysław Żywiczyński, J. Zlatev, Joost van de Weijer, Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska

{"title":"Constraints on communicating the order of events in stories through pantomime","authors":"Marta Sibierska, Przemysław Żywiczyński, J. Zlatev, Joost van de Weijer, Monika Boruta-Żywiczyńska","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzad008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad008","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Pantomime is a means of bodily visual communication that is based on iconic gestures that are not fully conventional. It has become a key element in many models of language evolution and a strong candidate for the original human-specific communicative system (Zlatev et al. 2020). Although pantomime affords successful communication in many contexts, it has some semiotic limitations. In this study, we looked at one of them, connected with communicating the order of events in stories. We assumed that pantomime is well-suited for communicating simple stories, where events are arranged in chronological order, and less so for communicating complex stories, where events are arranged in a non-chronological order. To test this assumption, we designed a semiotic game in which participants took turns as directors and matchers. The task of the directors was to mime a story in one of two conditions: chronological or non-chronological; the task of the matchers was to interpret what was mimed. The results showed that the chronological condition was easier for the participants. In the non-chronological condition, we observed that initially, poor communicative success improved as the participants started to use various markers of event order. The results of our study provide insight into the early stages of conventionalisation in bodily visual communication, a potential first step towards protolanguage.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48037166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Subgrouping in a ‘dialect continuum’: A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the Mixtecan language family “方言连续体”中的子群：Mixtecan语系的贝叶斯系统发育分析

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2023-06-02 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzad004

Sandra Auderset, Simon J. Greenhill, Christian T. DiCanio, Eric W. Campbell

引用次数: 0

The learnability and emergence of dependency structures in an artificial language 人工语言中依赖结构的可学习性和出现

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2023-05-27 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzad006

Emily Davis, Kenny Smith

{"title":"The learnability and emergence of dependency structures in an artificial language","authors":"Emily Davis, Kenny Smith","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzad006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In a pair of artificial language experiments, we investigated the learnability and emergence of different dependency structures: branching, center-embedding, and crossed. In natural languages, branching is the most common dependency structure; center-embedding occurs but is often disfavored, and crossed dependencies are very rare. Experiment 1 addressed learnability, testing comprehension, and production on small artificial languages exemplifying each dependency type in noun phrases. As expected, branching dependency grammars were the easiest to learn, but crossed grammars were not different from center-embedding. Experiment 2 employed iterated learning to examine the emergence and stabilization of consistent grammar using the same type of stimuli as Experiment 1. The initial participant in each chain of transmission was trained on phrases generated by a random grammar, with the language produced by that participant passed to the next participant through an iterated learning process. Branching dependency grammar appeared in most chains within a few generations and remained stable once it appeared, although one chain stabilized on output consistent with a crossed grammar; no chains converged on center-embedding grammars. These findings, along with some previous results, call into question the assumption that crossed dependencies are more cognitively complex than center-embedding, while confirming the role of learnability in the typology of dependency structures.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47825148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Language structure is influenced by the proportion of non-native speakers: A reply to 语言结构受非本族语使用者比例的影响

IF 2.6

Journal of Language Evolution Pub Date : 2023-04-20 DOI: 10.1093/jole/lzad005

Henri Kauhanen, Sarah Einhaus, G. Walkden

{"title":"Language structure is influenced by the proportion of non-native speakers: A reply to","authors":"Henri Kauhanen, Sarah Einhaus, G. Walkden","doi":"10.1093/jole/lzad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A recent quantitative study claims language structure, whether quantified as morphological or information-theoretic complexity, to be unaffected by the proportion of those speaking the language non-natively [A. Koplenig, Royal Society Open Science, 6, 181274 (2019)]. This result hinges on either the use of a categorical notion of ‘vehicularity’ as a proxy for the proportion of L2 (second-language) speakers, or the imputation of an assumed zero proportion of L2 speakers for languages that are considered non-vehicular but for which no direct estimate of that proportion exists. We provide two alternative analyses of the same data. The first reanalysis treats uncertain non-vehicular languages as missing data points; the second one employs multiple imputation to fill in the missing data. Mixed effects models find a statistically significant negative relationship between proportion of L2 speakers and morphological complexity: in both reanalyses, a higher proportion of L2 speakers predicts lower morphological complexity. We find no statistically significant evidence for a relationship between proportion of L2 speakers and information-theoretic complexity, however.","PeriodicalId":37118,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language Evolution","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42801896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 3