Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 12:2 (2022) ► pp.241–281

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The marking of spatial relations on animate nouns in Basque

A diachronic quantitative corpus study

 | University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
Published online: 14 March 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.20061.kra
Abstract
This corpus-based study examines the diachrony of differential place marking in Basque. In spatial cases, animate nouns in Basque exhibit heavier morphological forms than inanimate ones, but, under some circumstances, they can also be marked as inanimate. The data for the study comprises 66 sixteenth-to-twentieth-century texts (9,791 examples). A generalised linear mixed-effects model was fitted to analyse factors influencing the choice of marking. It is shown that animate nouns are sensitive to different aspects of the extended Animacy Hierarchy. The strongest effect is that of number (singular nouns prefer animate marking), followed by referentiality (pronouns are more prone to take animate forms than other nominals) and definiteness (definite nouns show animate marking more often than indefinite ones). The analysis also shows that animate marking became more widespread, and that there are dialectal differences. Moreover, more factors were relevant for the alternation in the earliest data (number, referentiality, definiteness, person and case) than in the most recent texts, where number is the most important.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Basque spatial cases and animacy
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Generalised linear mixed-effects models
    • 4.2Corpus
    • 4.3Variables
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Descriptive statistics
    • 5.2Model fitting and model selection
    • 5.3Effects of the predictors
    • 5.4Random effects
    • 5.5Further analyses
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (66)
References
Academie française. 2019. Dictionnaire de l’Académie française (9e édition). [URL]
Azkue, Resurrección María. 1923. Morfología Vasca. Bilbao: Editorial Vasca.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barteld, Fabian, Stefan Hartmann & Renata Szczepaniak. 2016. The Usage and Spread of Sentence-Internal Capitalization in Early New High German: A Multifactorial Approach. Folia Linguistica 50:2.385–412. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartoń, Kamil. 2020. MuMIn: Multi-Model Inference. [URL]
Bates, Douglas, Martin Mächler, Ben Bolker & Steve Walker. 2015. Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67:1.1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bilbao, Gidor, Ricardo Gómez López, Joseba A. Lakarra, Julen Manterola, Céline Mounole & Blanca Urgell. 2020. Lazarraga Eskuizkribuaren edizioa eta azterketa. Bilbao: University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creissels, Denis. 2009. Spatial Cases. The Oxford Handbook of Case ed. by Andrej Malchukov & Andrew Spencer, 609–625. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creissels, Denis & Céline Mounole. 2011. Animacy and Spatial Cases: Typological Tendencies, and the Case of Basque. Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles ed. by Seppo Kittilä, Katja Västi & Jussi Ylikoski, 157–182. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cristofaro, Sonia. 2013. The Referential Hierarchy: Reviewing the Evidence in Diachronic Perspective. Languages Across Boundaries: Studies in the Memory of Anna Siewierska ed. by Dik Bakker & Martin Haspelmath, 69–93. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 1993. Typology and Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen & Kari Fraurud. 1996. Animacy in Grammar and Discourse. Reference and Referent Accessibility ed. by Thorstein Fretheim & Jeanette K. Gundel, 47–64. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Smet, Isabeau & Freek Van de Velde. 2020. A Corpus-Based Quantitative Analysis of Twelve Centuries of Preterite and Past Participle Morphology in Dutch. Language Variation and Change 32:2.1–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Swart, Peter & Helen de Hoop. 2018. Shifting Animacy. Theoretical Linguistics 44:1–2.1–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Euskaltzaindia. 1991. Euskal gramatika. Lehen urratsak-I. Bilbao: Euskaltzaindia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia. Bilbao: Euskaltzaindia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Euskara Institutua. 2013. Euskal Klasikoen Corpusa (EKC). University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. [URL]
Fox, John & Sanford Weisberg. 2019. An R Companion to Applied Regression. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [URL]
Geleyn, Tim. 2017. Syntactic Variation and Diachrony: The Case of the Dutch Dative Alternation. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 13:1.65–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorrochategui, Joaquín, Iván Igartua & Joseba A. Lakarra, eds. 2018. Historia del euskera. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Eusko Jaurlaritza.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grafmiller, Jason. 2019. JGmermod: Custom Functions for Mixed-Effects Regression Models. [URL]
Gries, Stefan Th. 2013. Statistics for Linguistics with R: A Practical Introduction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015a. The Most Under-Used Statistical Method in Corpus Linguistics: Multi-Level (and Mixed-Effects) Models. Corpora 10:1.95–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015b. Some Current Quantitative Problems in Corpus Linguistics and a Sketch of some Solutions. Language and Linguistics 16:1.93–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gries, Stefan Th. & Martin Hilpert. 2010. Modeling Diachronic Change in the Third Person Singular: A Multifactorial, Verb- and Author-Specific Exploratory Approach. English Language and Linguistics 14:3.293–320. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harrison, Annette & William J. Ashby. 2003. Remodelling the House: The Grammaticalisation of Latin casa to French chez. Forum for Modern Language Studies 39:4.386–399. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2019. Differential Place Marking and Differential Object Marking. STUF – Language Typology and Universals 72:3.313–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse. Language 56:2.251–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide. 2004. Polysemy in Basque Locational Cases. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 18:1.271–298. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Igartua, Iván & Ekaitz Santazilia. 2018a. How Animacy and Natural Gender Constrain Morphological Complexity: Evidence from Diachrony. Open Linguistics 4:1.438–452. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018b. Asimetrías gramaticales asociadas a la animacidad en la lengua vasca: una perspectiva tipológica. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo 52:1–2.381–395. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kittilä, Seppo, Katja Västi & Jussi Ylikoski, eds. 2011. Case, Animacy, and Semantic Roles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee. 2019. World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lafitte, Pierre. 1991 [1944]. Grammaire basque. Donostia: Elkar.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakarra, Joseba A. 1984. Bizkaiera zaharreko ablatiboaz. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo 18:1.161–193.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1997. Euskararen historia eta filologia: arazo zahar, bide berri. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo 31:2.447–535.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. Prolegómenos a la reconstrucción de segundo grado y al análisis del cambio tipológico en (proto) vasco. Palaeohispanica 51.407–470.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Vol. 2: Descriptive Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Le Nouveau Testament. 1563. Le Nouveau Testament, c’est à dire, la Nouvelle Alliance de Nostre Seigneur Jesus Christ. Genève: Jean Bonne-Foy. [URL]
Longobardi, Giuseppe. 2001. Formal Syntax, Diachronic Minimalism, and Etymology: The History of French chez. Linguistic Inquiry 32:2.275–302. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lüdecke, Daniel. 2018. ggeffects: Tidy Data Frames of Marginal Effects from Regression Models. Journal of Open Source Software 3:26.772. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. sjPlot: Data Visualization for Statistics in Social Science. [URL]
Martínez-Areta, Mikel. 2013. Demonstrative and Personal Pronouns. Basque and Proto-Basque: Language-Internal and Typological Approaches to Linguistic Reconstruction ed. by Mikel Martínez-Areta, 283–321. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitxelena, Koldo. 2011 [1970]. Nombre y verbo en la etimología vasca. Obras completas ed. by Joseba A. Lakarra & Iñigo Ruiz Arzalluz, vol. VII1, 235–267. Bilbao: University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakagawa, Shinichi, Paul C. D. Johnson & Holger Schielzeth. 2017. The Coefficient of Determination R2 and Intra-Class Correlation Coefficient from Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models Revisited and Expanded. Journal of The Royal Society Interface 14:134.20170213. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakagawa, Shinichi & Holger Schielzeth. 2013. A General and Simple Method for Obtaining R2 from Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 4:2.133–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oyharçabal, Beñat, Irantzu Epelde & Jasone Salaberria. 2009. Norantz proiektua. [URL]
Padilla-Moyano, Manuel. 2015. Oloroeko katixima: edizioa eta azterketa. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Zuberoako euskararen azterketa diakronikoa: XVI-XIX. mendeak / Analyse diachronique du dialecte souletin : XVI-XIX siècles. Unpublished thesis, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU & Université Bordeaux Montaigne. [URL]
Mitxelena, Koldo. 1987–2005. Diccionario General Vasco – Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia. Bilbao: Euskaltzaindia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2020. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. [URL]
de Rijk, Rudolf Pieter Gerardus. 2008. Standard Basque: A Progressive Grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Santazilia, Ekaitz. 2013. Noun Morphology. Basque and Proto-Basque: Language-Internal and Typological Approaches to Linguistic Reconstruction ed. by Mikel Martínez-Areta, 223–281. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Animacy Effects in Inflectional Morphology: A Typological Survey. Unpublished thesis, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. [URL]
. 2020. The Two Faces of Animacy. Studies in Language 44:4.812–830. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Timberlake, Alan. 1975. Hierarchies in the Genitive of Negation. The Slavic and East European Journal 19:2.123–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trask, Robert L. 1997. The History of Basque. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ulibarri, Koldo. 2010. “Viva Jesus” dotrina: edizioa eta azterketa. Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo 44:2.41–154.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wickham, Hadley. 2016. ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. Springer-Verlag New York. [URL].
Winter, Bodo. 2020. Statistics for Linguists: An Introduction using R. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolk, Christoph, Joan Bresnan, Anette Rosenbach & Benedikt Szmrecsanyi. 2013. Dative and Genitive Variability in Late Modern English: Exploring Cross-Constructional Variation and Change. Diachronica 30:3.382–419. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuloaga, Eneko. 2020. Liburu virgina santissimien errosario santuena: edizioa eta hizkuntza-oharrak. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuur, Alain F., Elena N. Ieno, Neil Walker, Anatoly A. Saveliev & Graham M. Smith. 2009. Mixed Effects Models and Extensions in Ecology with R. New York: Springer New York. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Krajewska, Dorota
2024. The diachrony of the Basque marker bait-: from a manner expression to subordinator. Linguistics 62:3 ► pp. 653 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue