This paper proposes a Complexity Covariance Hypothesis, whereby linguistic complexity covaries with cultural and socio-political complexity, and argues for an Evolutionary Inference Principle, in accordance with which, in domains where linguistic complexity correlates positively with cultural/socio-political complexity, simpler linguistic structures are evolutionarily prior to their more complex counterparts. Applying this methodology in a case study, the covariance of linguistic and cultural/socio-political complexity is examined by means of a cross-linguistic survey of tense–aspect–mood (TAM) marking in a worldwide sample of 868 languages. A novel empirical finding emerges: all else being equal, languages from small language families tend to have optional TAM marking, while languages from large language families are more likely to exhibit obligatory TAM marking. Since optional TAM marking is simpler than obligatory TAM marking, it can, therefore, be inferred that optional TAM marking is evolutionarily prior to obligatory TAM marking: a living fossil. In conclusion, it is argued that the presence of obligatory TAM marking, correlated with the more highly grammaticalized expression of thematic-role assignment, is a reflection of a deeper property of grammatical organization, namely, the grammaticalization of predication. Thus, it is suggested that the development of agriculture and resulting demographic expansions, resulting in the emergence of large language families, are a driving force in the evolution of predication in human language. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Reconstructing prehistoric languages’.

Abstract The paper discusses the role of tense and time from a cross-linguistic perspective by comparing English (a tensed language) and Mandarin (a language without formal tense marking). Multiple translations of the same literary piece are used to test the correspondence between the tense, the perfective aspect and temporal adverbials. In English, tense marking is found to work with at least two language-specific stylistic means, clause interpolation and inversion, to create a mixed narrative viewpoint. In Mandarin, neither the perfective aspect nor temporal adverbials, i.e., constructions that invoke time, are systematically used across the renditions, which shows the Mandarin system’s overall indifference to time in managing viewpoint in discourse. The Mandarin renditions, in addition to an overall indifference to time, feature consistent and frequent use of reduplication as the system’s distinctive viewpoint strategy. The paper concludes with a discussion of the cognitive consequence of a language using an obligatory marking system to piggyback the function of viewpointing narratives.

This dissertation provides a typological account of the cross-linguistic functions that can be associated with periphrastic 'do'-constructions minimally consisting of a lexical verb and a ·schematic action- auxiliary element equivalent to English do. The investigation is based on a sample of 200 genetically and typologically diverse languages. While in some languages the occurrence of a periphrastic ‘do' -auxiliary in the clause is obligatory under certain morphosyntactic conditions, it is optional in others. The analysis of periphrastic 'do' -constructions in the sample shows that the variation of functions associated with obligatory 'do'-periphrasis as a consequence of grammatical properties is limited and can be described in terms of four types, A considerable number of languages that employ 'do' -periphrasis optionally allows similar form-function relations, which suggests that these four types represent likely domains for grammaticalisation. Functions of optional 'do’-periphrasis nevertheless also include the establishment of discourse coherence and morphosyntactic economy, more specifically avoidance of morphological complexity, for instance during language acquisition. The sample also contains languages in which a 'do’--auxiliary directly encodes grammatical categories typically associated with verb morphology such as tense, mood and aspect. In these languages the ·do' -auxiliary is not triggered by morphosyntactic features of the clause it occurs in. Furthermore 'do'

Lexique/grammaire. Le cas du khmer This article questions the distinction between grammar and the lexicon through a study of four Khmer units, each of them presenting both lexical and grammatical uses, as can be observed in many languages in the world. The distinction between what is lexical and what is grammatical is highly questionable as each unit turns out to have its own distribution and its own combinatory and syntactic constraints. Besides, it is impossible to single out a particular use which could be held as specifically basic.In Indo-European languages, the lexicon/grammar distinction has a certain visibility since two sets of units can be opposed easily enough: an open set, that of the lexicon, and a closed one, that of grammatical units. The use of lexical units for grammatical purposes thus seems to justify the use of the notion of “grammaticalization. But such an inventory proves impossible in Khmer, where categories such as tense, aspect, diathesis, number, etc. do not exist.This article argues that what makes a word’s identity is its very variation, not grammaticalization.