The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom
Abstract Languages vary in how they signal “who does what to whom”. Three main strategies to indicate the participant roles of “who” and “whom” are case, verbal indexing, and rigid word order. Languages that disambiguate these roles with case tend to have either verb-final or flexible word order. Mo...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51542-5 |
| _version_ | 1797233601159364608 |
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| author | Olena Shcherbakova Damián E. Blasi Volker Gast Hedvig Skirgård Russell D. Gray Simon J. Greenhill |
| author_facet | Olena Shcherbakova Damián E. Blasi Volker Gast Hedvig Skirgård Russell D. Gray Simon J. Greenhill |
| author_sort | Olena Shcherbakova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Languages vary in how they signal “who does what to whom”. Three main strategies to indicate the participant roles of “who” and “whom” are case, verbal indexing, and rigid word order. Languages that disambiguate these roles with case tend to have either verb-final or flexible word order. Most previous studies that found these patterns used limited language samples and overlooked the causal mechanisms that could jointly explain the association between all three features. Here we analyze grammatical data from a Grambank sample of 1705 languages with phylogenetic causal graph methods. Our results corroborate the claims that verb-final word order generally gives rise to case and, strikingly, establish that case tends to lead to the development of flexible word order. The combination of novel statistical methods and the Grambank database provides a model for the rigorous testing of causal claims about the factors that shape patterns of linguistic diversity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:18:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8416027abb1246f88c449759e5f0cba7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:18:45Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-8416027abb1246f88c449759e5f0cba72024-03-31T11:20:27ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-03-0114111310.1038/s41598-024-51542-5The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whomOlena Shcherbakova0Damián E. Blasi1Volker Gast2Hedvig Skirgård3Russell D. Gray4Simon J. Greenhill5Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyCatalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)Department of English and American Studies, Friedrich-Schiller University of JenaDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyDepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyAbstract Languages vary in how they signal “who does what to whom”. Three main strategies to indicate the participant roles of “who” and “whom” are case, verbal indexing, and rigid word order. Languages that disambiguate these roles with case tend to have either verb-final or flexible word order. Most previous studies that found these patterns used limited language samples and overlooked the causal mechanisms that could jointly explain the association between all three features. Here we analyze grammatical data from a Grambank sample of 1705 languages with phylogenetic causal graph methods. Our results corroborate the claims that verb-final word order generally gives rise to case and, strikingly, establish that case tends to lead to the development of flexible word order. The combination of novel statistical methods and the Grambank database provides a model for the rigorous testing of causal claims about the factors that shape patterns of linguistic diversity.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51542-5 |
| spellingShingle | Olena Shcherbakova Damián E. Blasi Volker Gast Hedvig Skirgård Russell D. Gray Simon J. Greenhill The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom Scientific Reports |
| title | The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom |
| title_full | The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom |
| title_fullStr | The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom |
| title_full_unstemmed | The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom |
| title_short | The evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom |
| title_sort | evolutionary dynamics of how languages signal who does what to whom |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51542-5 |
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