Empirical evidence supports the typological cycle theory in language evolution
the verdict
CONTESTED
contested - evenly split
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
4 sources for · 1 against
While some studies provide empirical evidence supporting cyclical developments in specific grammatical features, other evaluations indicate that typological cycle theories lack universal empirical support when languages are considered in toto.
Abstract
In this chapter I examine the phonetic origins of voiceless
sonorants cross-linguistically within the general framework of
Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins
2004; 2006;
2008b; 2015). In terms of a general
hierarchy of contrast, we observe that: voiceless obstruents are
common; voiceless sonorant consonants are uncommon; voiceless vowels
are extremely rare. One phonetic source of voiceless sonorants
is coarticulation in RH and HR and clusters, where R is a sonorant
and H is a segment produced with a spread glottal gesture. Voiceless
sonorants may also arise when laryngeal spreading gestures are
associated with prosodic domains. In this second case, voiceless
sonorants can arise as allophones of their voiced counterparts.
While a fair number of languages show voiceless sonorant glides,
liquids and nasals phonologized as a consequence of RH/HR
coarticulation, voiceless vowels resist phonologization despite
their high frequency as phonetic variants of modal vowels. In
some cases, voiceless vowels are lost before phonologization can
occur. In other cases, resistance to phonologization may be due to
effects of analogy, /h/, word phonotactics, or lexical
competition.
... evolution' and it was this that guaranteed in his thinking their non-arbitrariness (see Bynon 1986 for further discussion and references). When languages are looked at in toto, this position is clearly without empirical support. This is ...
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Aspect, Modality and Typology Ezra la Roi. Acknowledgments The research collected in this monograph was kickstarted by the PhD - by ... Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory and for his encouraging support as Acknowledgments.
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This paper explores the interaction between language and society by proposing an approach through the processing of linguistic variation. Drawing on societal evidence and recent empirical studies in Brazilian Portuguese, it demonstrates how grammatical gender rules are perceived and encoded. The examination of gender agreement rules, exemplified by the choice between presidente and presidenta, along with results from gender noun frequency studies and the association between gender in society and
This paper explores the interaction between language and society by proposing an approach through the processing of linguistic variation. Drawing on societal evidence and recent empirical studies in Brazilian Portuguese, it demonstrates how grammatical gender rules are perceived and encoded. The examination of gender agreement rules, exemplified by the choice between presidente and presidenta, along with results from gender noun frequency studies and the association between gender in society and reference in two-gender common nouns, supports the proposal of a cycle of gender representativeness and frequency in society and its effect on the encoding of grammar rules, reinforcing the mutually constitutive nature of language and society.
Everything we examined (5) — 4 independent sources
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