Article published In: Diachronica
Vol. 36:2 (2019) ► pp.139–180
Reassessing the evolution of West Germanic preterite inflection
Published online: 22 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.18020.des
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.18020.des
Abstract
This article takes a quantitative approach to the long-term dynamics of the preterite inflection in West Germanic,
with a special focus on Dutch. In a first step, we replicate two often-cited studies on English and German (Lieberman, Erez, Jean-Baptiste Michel, Joe Jackson, Tina Tang & Martin A. Nowak. 2007. Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language. Nature 4491. 713–716. and Carroll, Ryan, Ragnar Svare & Joseph Salmons. 2012. Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of German verbs. Journal of Historical Linguistics 21. 153–172. , respectively)
by looking at Dutch. This part also tackles some methodological shortcomings in the previous studies. In a second step, we delve
deeper into the evolution of the preterite morphology in Dutch in the last 1200 years, by looking at several factors which have
been previously only investigated in isolation or on limited time slices. Using multiple binomial regression analysis, the various
factors are studied under multifactorial control.
Keywords: Dutch, strong verbs, weak verbs, preterites, binomial regression, West Germanic, rate of change
Résumé
Cet article adopte une approche quantitative pour étudier la dynamique de longue durée de la flexion du
prétérit en germanique occidental, tout en accordant un intérêt particulier au néerlandais. Dans un premier temps, nous appliquons
au néerlandais deux études souvent citées sur l’anglais et l’allemand (Lieberman, Erez, Jean-Baptiste Michel, Joe Jackson, Tina Tang & Martin A. Nowak. 2007. Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language. Nature 4491. 713–716. et Carroll, Ryan, Ragnar Svare & Joseph Salmons. 2012. Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of German verbs. Journal of Historical Linguistics 21. 153–172. , respectivement), chose qui
nous permet d’aborder également certaines lacunes méthodologiques de ces études. Ensuite, nous étudions de façon plus
approfondie l’évolution de la morphologie du prétérit en néerlandais au cours des 1200 dernières années, en examinant
plusieurs facteurs qui n’avaient jusqu’à présent été étudiés que de manière isolée ou sur une durée limitée. À
l’aide d’une analyse de régression binomiale multiple, on étudie les divers facteurs sont sous contrôle
multifactoriel.
Zusammenfassung
Dieser Artikel betrachtet die langfristige Dynamik der westgermanischen Präteritums-Flexion aus
quantitativer Perspektive mit speziellem Fokus auf das Niederländische. Zuerst replizieren wir zwei viel zitierte Studien zum
Englischen und Deutschen (Lieberman, Erez, Jean-Baptiste Michel, Joe Jackson, Tina Tang & Martin A. Nowak. 2007. Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language. Nature 4491. 713–716. und Carroll, Ryan, Ragnar Svare & Joseph Salmons. 2012. Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of German verbs. Journal of Historical Linguistics 21. 153–172. ) in Bezug auf Niederländisch. Dieser Teil bedient ebenfalls methodologische Defizite bisheriger
Studien. Weiterhin beleuchten wir die Evolution der niederländischen Präteritums-Morphologie der vergangen 1200 Jahre, indem wir
verschiedene Faktoren, die vorher ausschließlich gesondert oder in begrenzten Zeitrahmen betrachtet wurden, gemeinsam evaluieren.
Durch Anwendung der binomialen Regressionsanalyse werden diese Faktoren unter multifaktorieller Kontrolle analysiert.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.‘Regular-irregular’ vs. ‘weak-strong’
- 3.Etymological intricacies
- 4.Quantifying the weakening
- 4.1Methods
- 4.2Results
- 4.3Comparison with English and German
- 5.A multifactorial approach
- 5.1More than token frequency
- 5.2Method
- 5.3Results
- 5.4Discussion
- 6.Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
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