LANGUAGE CHANGE.pptx

Ontology and Phenomenology: Franco-Japanese Collaborative Lectures, 2009

This paper is concerned with an issue in the ontology of language. The question we wish to ask is this, namely, given that a language consists of linguistic types which are abstract objects, and that abstract objects do not exist in time, how is it possible for a language to change? We start with drawing a distinction between linguistic types and tokens (§1). Then, in §2 it will be argued that linguistic types are contingent abstract objects. After trying to locate linguistic types among various type entities in §3, we note that the ontological status of linguistic types has an important epistemological consequence that we have a posteriori knowledge of abstract objects such as linguistic types, because we come to know their properties by encountering their tokens in our experience (§4). If a language is a system of abstract objects, then it does not exist in time, and hence, it cannot change. But, we talk of a language as if it is constantly changing. How can such contradictory claims be reconciled? This is the main question of this paper and the business of §5 is to try to answer it. In answering it, we propose to make two corrections to our way of talking about language. First, “language change” is, in reality, a replacement of one language by another. Strictly speaking, languages cannot change; only linguistic practices change. Second, language names such as “Japanese,” “French,” or even “first-order language” are not singular names but common names. We should admit there are a great number of different languages which are all called “Japanese.”

Encyclopedia of Semiotics, ed. P. Bouissac (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 1998

Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages: History, Structure, and Use, 2015

Language shift, the loss of language on the societal level, is the major mechanism underlying the loss of linguistic diversity that we are witnessing today across the world. In the most general terms, language shift denotes changing collective language choices as a result of the unsettling of language ecologies due to transformations of the political, economic and social ecology of their communities. Since language shift is the effect of one language becoming preferred to another one, language shift inevitably involves two languages, the retreating and the replacing language. In our case the Ryukyuan languages are retreating and being either by Ryukyu-substrate Japanese or by Standard Japanese.

2011

2011

Language contact through translation (LCTT) is a particular source of contact-induced language change. While investigations into individual scenarios have shown its importance, major works on language contact have largely neglected this type of language contact. In particular, no attempt has been made so far at establishing general principles and mechanisms for LCTT situations. This contribution presents a tentative typology for the study of LCTT and analyzes two different situations from that perspective, namely the contact between Latin and Old Swedish in the Middle Ages and between English and German today.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2010

Lingua, 2017

Although adaptation is widely recognised by contact linguistics as an important mechanism of language change, previous studies examining the relationship between translation and language change in the target language normally ignore its role. The present study aims to address this gap and expand the application of the Code-Copying Framework (Johanson 1993, 1999, 2002b) to the study of translation as a language contact phenomenon by examining how the frequential copy of the passive voice reporting verbs in Greek popular science has been combinationally adapted regarding word order. By examining the role that adaptation plays in translation-induced change, we can gain a complete understanding not only of the complex mechanisms that govern the relationship between translation and language change, but also shed light on the nature of the translation activity. The paper provides a strong argument that translation can be understood using existing concepts of contact linguistics, most notably the Code-Copying Framework.

Review:

Revista De Letras, 2017

Depending on the point of view, changes can have small or large consequences on a system. Regarding human language, we see this kind of relativism in a claim made by linguist David Lightfoot: a language change can be considered abrupt if we focus on internal properties of language or gradual if we focus on external ones. Two well documented cases of language change, usually described as transitions from null to overt pronominal subjects in Old French and in modern Brazilian Portuguese, are used as empirical analyses for our evaluation of Lightfoot’s claim.

Sprachwandelvergleich - Comparing Diachronies, 2013