Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures
Within linguistics, there is an ongoing debate about whether some language structures remain stable over time, which structures these are and whether they can be used to uncover the relationships between languages. However, there is no consensus on the definition of the term ‘stability’. I define ‘s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
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| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211252 |
| _version_ | 1797457535437897728 |
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| author | Nataliia Hübler |
| author_facet | Nataliia Hübler |
| author_sort | Nataliia Hübler |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Within linguistics, there is an ongoing debate about whether some language structures remain stable over time, which structures these are and whether they can be used to uncover the relationships between languages. However, there is no consensus on the definition of the term ‘stability’. I define ‘stability’ as a high phylogenetic signal and a low rate of change. I use metric D to measure the phylogenetic signal and Hidden Markov Model to calculate the evolutionary rate for 171 structural features coded for 12 Japonic, 2 Koreanic, 14 Mongolic, 11 Tungusic and 21 Turkic languages. To more deeply investigate the differences in evolutionary dynamics of structural features across areas of grammar, I divide the features into 4 language domains, 13 functional categories and 9 parts of speech. My results suggest that there is a correlation between the phylogenetic signal and evolutionary rate and that, overall, two-thirds of the features have a high phylogenetic signal and over a half of the features evolve at a slow rate. Specifically, argument marking (flagging and indexing), derivation and valency appear to be the most stable functional categories, pronouns and nouns the most stable parts of speech, and phonological and morphological levels the most stable language domains. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:23:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-392e6a4e98a942acbdee1cdfd5ec10e8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:23:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-392e6a4e98a942acbdee1cdfd5ec10e82023-11-24T15:10:25ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032022-03-019310.1098/rsos.211252Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structuresNataliia Hübler0Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Str. 10, Jena 07745, GermanyWithin linguistics, there is an ongoing debate about whether some language structures remain stable over time, which structures these are and whether they can be used to uncover the relationships between languages. However, there is no consensus on the definition of the term ‘stability’. I define ‘stability’ as a high phylogenetic signal and a low rate of change. I use metric D to measure the phylogenetic signal and Hidden Markov Model to calculate the evolutionary rate for 171 structural features coded for 12 Japonic, 2 Koreanic, 14 Mongolic, 11 Tungusic and 21 Turkic languages. To more deeply investigate the differences in evolutionary dynamics of structural features across areas of grammar, I divide the features into 4 language domains, 13 functional categories and 9 parts of speech. My results suggest that there is a correlation between the phylogenetic signal and evolutionary rate and that, overall, two-thirds of the features have a high phylogenetic signal and over a half of the features evolve at a slow rate. Specifically, argument marking (flagging and indexing), derivation and valency appear to be the most stable functional categories, pronouns and nouns the most stable parts of speech, and phonological and morphological levels the most stable language domains.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211252phylogenetic signalevolutionary ratestructural featuresancestral state reconstructionTranseurasianAltaic |
| spellingShingle | Nataliia Hübler Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures Royal Society Open Science phylogenetic signal evolutionary rate structural features ancestral state reconstruction Transeurasian Altaic |
| title | Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures |
| title_full | Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures |
| title_fullStr | Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures |
| title_full_unstemmed | Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures |
| title_short | Phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures |
| title_sort | phylogenetic signal and rate of evolutionary change in language structures |
| topic | phylogenetic signal evolutionary rate structural features ancestral state reconstruction Transeurasian Altaic |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211252 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nataliiahubler phylogeneticsignalandrateofevolutionarychangeinlanguagestructures |