JPN494/598: History of the Japanese Language

Basic concepts in historical linguistics

Basic Concepts in Historical Linguistics



synchronic

vs.

diachronic

studies 

dia

- (through) +

chronos

(time) +

-ic

 Diachronic linguistics is concerned with change in language or languages over time.  Synchronic linguistics deals with a language at a single point of time.



philology

: (i) historical linguistics, the historical study of language; (ii) the study of old written documents, linguistic studies based on old writings



etymology

: (the study of) historical origins of individual words    稲荷寿司 ( いなりずし ) 面白い ( おもしろい ) glamour < ‘grammar’ cf. folk-etymology  デマ (‘false rumor’) < でまかせ ?  asparagus < sparrow-grass?

( ク語法 ) “ 見らく少なく恋ふらくの多き”     見らく (‘ 見ること’ ), 恋ふらく (‘ 恋いること’ ), 清けく (‘ 清いこと’ ) 見る + あく (miru + aku) ?

恋ふる + あく (kouru + aku) ?

清き + あく (kiyoki + aku)?

  あく = ‘ こと、ところ’ あくがる (Mod J: あこがれる ‘ to admire, to be attracted to’ )

Varieties of Linguistic Changes



Domain

: Sound, Syntactic, and Lexical Changes, etc.



Cause

: Analogy, Borrowing, etc. (or no obvious cause)

Sound changes

 Regular Changes  conditioned or unconditioned?

 phonemic or not? (e.g. whether they lead to a change of the phonemic system)  Sporadic Changes

Two major types of sounds



Consonants

: speech-sounds produced when the speaker either stops or severely constricts the airflow in the vocal tract.



Vowels

: speech-sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract, which functions as a resonating chamber.

Consonants

 Place(s) of Articulation:  lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), …  Manner of Articulation  stops (plosives), fricatives, affricates, approximants, …  Voicing (Phonation)  voiced vs. voiceless

Vowels

 Three major parameters that characterize a vowel:  How wide the mouth is open (or, how high the tongue is) (open, open-mid, close-mid, close)   How forward the tongue position is (front, central, back) The shape of the lips (rounded, spread)  Simple vowels (monophthong) can be combined to form a diphthong (e.g. English [a ɪ] as in

I am …

) or triphthong.

Web resources

  1.

2.

The original IPA chart: ( http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/fullchart.html

) “Pronounceable” IPA chart with sound files: ( http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAla b/IPAlab.htm

) (U of Victoria) ( http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguisti cs/VowelsandConsonants/course/chapter1/chapt er1.html

) (UCLA)

  

Plosives

(

Stops

): complete closure of the articulators, which blocks the air stream through the mouth.

Nasals

: the same as plosives but with airflow through the nasal cavity & nostrils.

Fricatives

: close approximation of two articulators; the air stream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced 

Affricates

: continuous sequences of plosives and fricatives

 

Taps

(

Flaps

): a quick contact of two articulators (e.g. the tongue and the alveolar ridge)

Trills

: repeated quick contacts of articulators 

Approximants

: A gesture in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.

 (

Lateral

: the tongue is in contact with the upper structure of the mouth.)



Regular sound change

: a kind of change that takes place whenever the sound or sounds which undergo the change are found in the circumstances or environments that condition the change.

Conditioned vs. unconditioned sound changes

 p > b / V _ V (Latin to Spanish) 

capillus

>

cabello

,

caput

>

cabo

, … 

pater

>

padre

,

professio

>

p

rofesión

, …   > j (in many dialects of Spanish)  

calle

: [ka  e] > [kaje],

llamar

: [  amar] > [jamar]

halla

‘find’ vs.

haya

‘have (subj.)’

Merger, loss, split of sounds (phonemes)

 Certain (regular) sound changes affect the

phonemic system

others don’t.

of a language, while certain  Phonology vs. Phonetics  Phonetics deals with linguistic sounds

physical objects (phones)

.

as

 Phonology deals with linguistic sounds

units of meaningful expressions (phonemes)

.

as

Phonetics vs. Phonology

  pin [p h ɪn], spin [spɪn], pop [p h ɑp] [p h ] vs. [p]: “different” or “same”?

 They are different from the phonetic perspective, but the same from the phonological perspective.  [p h ] and [p] are

allophones

phoneme, /p/ (in English). of the same

Notational Convention

  phonetic description: […] (e.g. [p h ɪn]) phonological (phonemic) description: /…/ (e.g. /pɪn/)

Complementary distribution

  Complementary distribution: allophones do not occur in the same phonological environment   OK: ??:

pin pin

[p h ɪn],

spin

[p ɪn],

spin

[spɪn] [sp h ɪn] Pairs of expressions that have different meanings and that differ in only one sound (phone) are called

minimal pairs;

they can be used to show that two phones are

not

allophones of the same phoneme.



pin: bin



hit

:

heat

  Allophones in one language are not necessarily allophones in another language.

[p] and [p h ] are considered the “same” in English (phonologically).

 But they are

not

in some other languages  비 [pi] ‘rain’ vs. 피 [p h i] ‘blood’ (Korean)

 The inventory of phonemes of a given language may expand or shrink through historical change.

 (Not all sound changes, on the other hand, affect the number of phonemes in the language.)

 /  / and /j/ merged (into /j/) in many dialects of Spanish 

halla

‘find’ vs.

haya

‘have (subj.)’  /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ merged (into /ɑ/) for many speakers of American English (e.g.

law

vs.

la

,

cot

vs.

caught

)



Sporadic (non-regular) sound changes

:  E.g.:   けむり [kemuri] ‘smoke’ < けぶり [keburi] たき [taki] ‘water fall’ < たぎ [tagi]

Syntactic Change

 The Wycliff Bible (14 th century; middle English): And a litil aftir, they that stooden camen, and seiden to Petir, treuli thou art of hem for thi speche makith thee knowun.

 The King James Bible (1611; early modern E.): And after a while came vnto him they that stood by, and saide to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them, for thy speech bewrayeth thee.

 The New English Bible (1961; modern E.): Shortly afterwards the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Surely you are another of them; your accent gives you away!’

Lexical changes

 The vocabulary (the collection of words) of a language may acquire new members through:  borrowing  coining 

gas

,

smog

 

(to) xerox, guillotine, canary radar (< radio direction and ranging), VCR (< video casette recorder)

(acronym/alphabetism)

 Words may be lost; sometimes they are replaced by new words; sometimes they simply become obsolete along with the concepts associated with them.

  活動写真 ( かつどうしゃしん ; motion picture) 年貢 ( ねんぐ ; land tax)

 Meanings associated with words can change through time, with the phonetic forms unchanged.  There are various types of semantic changes; a complete/consistent classification is hard to come by.

Varieties of semantic changes

 widening & narrowing  degeneration & elevation  hyperbole, litotes  euphemism  semantic expansion by metaphor and metonymy

Widening & Narrowing

Widening  

dog

: ‘a specific breed of dog’ > ‘dog in general’

salary

: (a Latin word for) ‘a soldier’s allotment of salt’ > ‘a soldier’s pay’ > ‘wages in general’ Narrowing  

hound

: ‘dogs in general’ > ‘a specific type of dog’

meat

: ‘food in general’ > ‘meat’

Degeneration & Elevation

Degeneration 

silly

: ‘happy, innocent’ > ‘foolish’ 

putta

: ‘girl’ > ‘whore’ (Italian) Elevation  

knight

: ‘boy, servant’ > ‘mounted worrior, nobility’

pretty

: ‘crafty, sly’ > ‘lovely’

Hyperbole & Litotes

Hyperbole (Exaggeration)  ‘I am

terribly

sorry.’ Litotes (Understatement) 

meurtre

: ‘to bruise’ > ‘to kill’ (Spanish)

Euphemism



euphemism

: replacement of words regarded as unpleasant/obscene “Terms for ‘toilet’ frequently come to be considered indelicate, and substitutions lacking the distressing sentiments are made” (Campbell 99: 263)

water closet

(

WC

) →

toilet

→

bathroom, mens’/ladies’ room, rest room,

etc.

Semantic expansion

 polysemy & (lexical) ambiguity  A word (form) is called

polysemous

when it has multiple meanings (that are connected with each other) 

bank

: (i) financial institution, (ii) river side

 Expansion by

metaphor

 

grasp

: {‘seize’} > {‘seize’, ‘understand’}

to chill

: {‘to cool down’} > {‘to cool down’, ‘to calm down, to relax’}  

leg, crane,

は ( 歯・刃 )

before

Metaphor

: a process whereby one thing is conceptualized in terms of another, with a leap across semantic domains. A metaphor is based on the

resemblance

of two things. (e.g. Snow White)

 Expansion by

metonymy



dish

: {‘tableware’} > {‘tableware’, ‘food’} 

timber

: {‘room, building’} > {‘building’, ‘material for building (wood)’} > {‘wood’}    メガネ ,

blonde Champagne, Toyota go to bathroom

, 頭を下げる , 頭を抱える

Metonymy

: a process whereby the name of one thing is substituted by the name of another, closely related object.

A metonymy is based on the

contiguity/relevance

of two things.

(product-place, person-attire, part-whole, etc.) (e.g.

Little Red Riding Hood

)

Borrowing

 Lexical borrowing (loanwords) is very common in Japanese as well as in English.

 Japanese words can be classified by their origins:  和語 ( わご ); 固有語 ( こゆうご ) native words    漢語 ( かんご ) Sino-Japanese words 洋語 ( ようご ) foreign words 混種語 ( こんしゅご ) hybrid words

 Motivation for (lexical) borrowing  

need

:

coffee

,

tobacco

; コーヒー , タバコ

prestige

: アクロバット ( 分析家 ), アメニティー ( かるわざ , 曲芸 ), アナリスト ( 快適さ ), … “English could have done perfectly well with only native terms for ‘pig meat’ and ‘cow meat’, but for reasons of prestige,

pork

and

beef

[from French].” (Campbell 99:64) were borrowed

  Sound borrowing is less common than lexical borrowing, but may happen after extensive/intimate language contact.

/ʒ/ (as in

leisure, vision

) became an English phoneme through French loanwords.

 (cf.

leisure

vs.

ledger

) ファン [

ɸa

ɴ], ティー [

ti

:]

 Syntactic borrowing: “is much more frequent and important than some scholars have thought in the past” (Campbell 99) (From Spanish to Pipil)   Esa mujer es

m ás

linda

que

tú.

ne siwa:t

mas

gal á:na

ke

taha

Analogy (analogical change)

   

Analogy

has been considered one of the most important factors in linguistic change (along with

regular sound change

and

borrowing

). The definition of linguistic analogy, however, tends to be quite vague. E.g., “Analogy is a process whereby one form of a language becomes more like another with which it is somehow associated.” ex.

January, Febuary , …

Analogy is a “wastebasket” category of linguistic change, and includes various subtypes, such as:  proportional analogy   analogical leveling analogical extension  metanalysis  … hypercorrection

 A

proportional analogical change

can be represented in an equation of the form: A : B = C : X where one solves for X.

A proportional analogical change that makes the paradigm {simpler/more uniform} is called

analogical leveling

.

 ex 1:

old

-

elder

-

eldest

>

old

-

older

-

oldest late

-

latter

-

last

>

late

-

later

-

latest

new : newer = old : x

 ex 2: Standard English

I was You were He was We were You were They were

Some dialects (e.g. Smith Island English)

I was We was You was He was You was They was

A proportional analogical change that makes the paradigm {more complex/irregular} is called

analogical extension

.

 ex 1: ride : rode = dive : x

 ex 2: ラ抜き言葉 ( らぬきことば ) Type 1 - verb   書く 読む : 書かれる : 読まれる : 書ける : 読める Type 2 - verb   食べる 見る : 食べられる : 見られる : : 食べれる 見れる

Type 1 - verb   kak-u : kak-are-ru : kak-e-ru yom-u : yom-are-ru : yom-e-ru Type 2 - verb   tabe-ru : tabe-rare-ru : tabe-re-ru mi-ru : mi-rare-ru : mi-re-ru are : rare = e : X

Hypercorrection

involves an attempt to change a form in a less prestigious variety to make it conform to how it would be pronounced in a more prestigious variety.  

lawn

>

lawned

,

across

>

acrost

(in analogy with

han

vs.

hand

,

firs

vs.

first

)

umbrella fellow

) >

umbrellow

(in analogy with

fella

vs.

Metanalysis

involves a change in the structural analysis (by the speakers).



amalgamation all most

>

almost

;

do on

>

don



reanalysis a norange

>

an orange

;

a napron

>

an apron

Models of linguistic change/diversification



The family tree model

vs.

The dialectological model (the wave theory)



The family tree model

: attempts to show how languages (& dialects) diversify and how language families are classified (typically using the comparative method).

   The family tree model emphasizes on the

regularity

of sound changes. “Sound laws suffer no exception.” Thanks to the regularity of sound changes, we are able to reconstruct extinct, ancestral languages (

proto-languages

), using the

comparative method

. Many scholars believe that the comparative method is effective for the reconstruction of the

syntax

of the proto-language as well (as opposed to the sound system only)

 The “

wave theory

” (the dialectological model): “Each word has its own history.”  “Linguistic changes spread outward concentrically like waves, which become progressively weaker with the distance from their central point.”

k > ʃ / _ a (from Latin to French)

1.

2.

3.

4.

candēla

>

chandelle cantāre

>

chanter cattu(s)

>

chat campus

>

champ ‘

candle

’ ‘

sing

’

‘cat’

‘

field

’

(ʃ) (ʃ) (k) (k)

  regular sound changes + borrowing + analogical changes “Neither the family tree model nor the dialectological model [(the wave theory)] is sufficient to explain all of linguistic change and all the sorts of relationships that can exist between dialects and related languages.”  The wave theory deals with changes due to contact among languages and dialects.

 Excerpts from Campbell (2004)  Excerpt from Shibatani (1990)  IPA chart  Assignment #1