Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems
Abstract Languages of diverse structures and different families tend to share common patterns if they are spoken in geographic proximity. This convergence is often explained by horizontal diffusibility, which is typically ascribed to language contact. In such a scenario, speakers of two or more lang...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-01003-5 |
| _version_ | 1819177980378742784 |
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| author | Marc Allassonnière-Tang Olof Lundgren Maja Robbers Sandra Cronhamn Filip Larsson One-Soon Her Harald Hammarström Gerd Carling |
| author_facet | Marc Allassonnière-Tang Olof Lundgren Maja Robbers Sandra Cronhamn Filip Larsson One-Soon Her Harald Hammarström Gerd Carling |
| author_sort | Marc Allassonnière-Tang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Languages of diverse structures and different families tend to share common patterns if they are spoken in geographic proximity. This convergence is often explained by horizontal diffusibility, which is typically ascribed to language contact. In such a scenario, speakers of two or more languages interact and influence each other’s languages, and in this interaction, more grammaticalized features tend to be more resistant to diffusion compared to features of more lexical content. An alternative explanation is vertical heritability: languages in proximity often share genealogical descent. Here, we suggest that the geographic distribution of features globally can be explained by two major pathways, which are generally not distinguished within quantitative typological models: feature diffusion and language expansion. The first pathway corresponds to the contact scenario described above, while the second occurs when speakers of genetically related languages migrate. We take the worldwide distribution of nominal classification systems (grammatical gender, noun class, and classifier) as a case study to show that more grammaticalized systems, such as gender, and less grammaticalized systems, such as classifiers, are almost equally widespread, but the former spread more by language expansion historically, whereas the latter spread more by feature diffusion. Our results indicate that quantitative models measuring the areal diffusibility and stability of linguistic features are likely to be affected by language expansion that occurs by historical coincidence. We anticipate that our findings will support studies of language diversity in a more sophisticated way, with relevance to other parts of language, such as phonology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T21:35:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-87ec741eb415432698483f92c034eeb8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-9992 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T21:35:16Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-87ec741eb415432698483f92c034eeb82022-12-21T18:11:47ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922021-12-01811610.1057/s41599-021-01003-5Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systemsMarc Allassonnière-Tang0Olof Lundgren1Maja Robbers2Sandra Cronhamn3Filip Larsson4One-Soon Her5Harald Hammarström6Gerd Carling7EA UMR 7206 - MNHN/ CNRS/ Université de ParisLund UniversityUppsala UniversityLund UniversityLund UniversityTunghai UniversityUppsala UniversityLund UniversityAbstract Languages of diverse structures and different families tend to share common patterns if they are spoken in geographic proximity. This convergence is often explained by horizontal diffusibility, which is typically ascribed to language contact. In such a scenario, speakers of two or more languages interact and influence each other’s languages, and in this interaction, more grammaticalized features tend to be more resistant to diffusion compared to features of more lexical content. An alternative explanation is vertical heritability: languages in proximity often share genealogical descent. Here, we suggest that the geographic distribution of features globally can be explained by two major pathways, which are generally not distinguished within quantitative typological models: feature diffusion and language expansion. The first pathway corresponds to the contact scenario described above, while the second occurs when speakers of genetically related languages migrate. We take the worldwide distribution of nominal classification systems (grammatical gender, noun class, and classifier) as a case study to show that more grammaticalized systems, such as gender, and less grammaticalized systems, such as classifiers, are almost equally widespread, but the former spread more by language expansion historically, whereas the latter spread more by feature diffusion. Our results indicate that quantitative models measuring the areal diffusibility and stability of linguistic features are likely to be affected by language expansion that occurs by historical coincidence. We anticipate that our findings will support studies of language diversity in a more sophisticated way, with relevance to other parts of language, such as phonology.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-01003-5 |
| spellingShingle | Marc Allassonnière-Tang Olof Lundgren Maja Robbers Sandra Cronhamn Filip Larsson One-Soon Her Harald Hammarström Gerd Carling Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
| title | Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems |
| title_full | Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems |
| title_fullStr | Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems |
| title_short | Expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems |
| title_sort | expansion by migration and diffusion by contact is a source to the global diversity of linguistic nominal categorization systems |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-01003-5 |
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