22.06.2023

Exploring the co-evolution of sound patterns and lexical items: a phylogenetic approach

Colloquium by Dr. Chundra Cathcart

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Time: Thursday, 22^th June 2023 at 1pm (sharp)

Location: Rümelinstraße 23, Room 602 or via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Chundra Cathcart

Title: Exploring the co-evolution of sound patterns and lexical items: a phylogenetic approach

Abstract:

Languages vary widely in terms of the sound patterns they permit: a hypothetical word *bnick would not be possible in English, but similar words are found in other languages. At the same time, a number of trends are found to recur across genetically diverse languages.

In this talk, I investigate the origins and maintenance of two of these quasi-universal phenomena: (1) the statistical under-representation of proximate consonants sharing a place of articulation within words (similar place avoidance; Frisch, Pierrehumbert, and Broe 2004; van de Weijer 2005; Pozdniakov and Segerer 2007; Wilson and Obdeyn 2009) and (2) robust sound-meaning correspondences (Dingemanse et al. 2015; Blasi et al. 2016; Johansson et al. 2020).

Both of these phenomena are plausibly rooted in cognitive and communicative preferences, and contribute to a communicatively optimized system. At the same time, not much is known regarding the specific diachronic mechanisms that bring about and foster these patterns, with the exception of some detailed studies limited to individual languages (Carling and Johansson 2014).

I use phylogenetic methods to explore the evolutionary dynamics of these phenomena in a number of language families. The models I employ allow me to clarify whether similar place avoidance is largely an artifact of constraints on mutation (i.e., words violating this constraint are unlikely to be coined) or selection of word forms (i.e., words violating this constraint are likely to die out). Additionally (in joint work with G. Jäger), I use similar approaches to quantify the stability of certain sound classes within concepts (e.g., +NASAL in NOSE) in a dynamic fashion, clarifying aspects of the dynamics of renewal of sound-meaning associations.

References

Blasi, Damián E, Søren Wichmann, Harald Hammarström, Peter F Stadler, and Morten H Christiansen. 2016. “Sound–Meaning Association Biases Evidenced Across Thousands of Languages.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (39): 10818–23.

Carling, Gerd, and Niklas Johansson. 2014. “Motivated Language Change: Processes Involved in the Growth and Conventionalization of Onomatopoeia and Sound Symbolism.” Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 46 (2): 199–217.

Dingemanse, Mark, Damián E Blasi, Gary Lupyan, Morten H Christiansen, and Padraic Monaghan. 2015. “Arbitrariness, Iconicity, and Systematicity in Language.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19 (10): 603–15.

Frisch, Stefan A, Janet B Pierrehumbert, and Michael B Broe. 2004. “Similarity Avoidance and the OCP.” Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 22 (1): 179–228.

Johansson, Niklas Erben, Andrey Anikin, Gerd Carling, and Arthur Holmer. 2020. “The Typology of Sound Symbolism: Defining Macro-Concepts via Their Semantic and Phonetic Features.” Linguistic Typology 24 (2): 253–310.

Pozdniakov, Konstantin, and Guillaume Segerer. 2007. “Similar Place Avoidance: A Statistical Universal

We welcome you all to join us in-person or via Zoom.