This is the class log, updated after every class meeting. It includes topics, assignments, announcements, Web links, etc.

FINAL EXAM, 12:00 NOON

Review session #2, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Dey 404.

Review session #1, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Dey 204.

Reminder: UNDERLING's Linguistics Fun Night is tonight, at 7 p.m., in Dey 304. Games! Eats! Elections!

Topics: Course wrap-up.

Class:

• Return Guilder/Florin homeworks (7 and 8)
• Go over final-exam syllabus
• Schedule review session:
  • Thursday, April 30, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Dey 204.
  • Friday, May 1, 5 p.m to 6 p.m., Dey 404.
• Exit poll and Carolina Course Evaluations

Topics: Pidgins and creoles.

Class:

• Assumptions of comparative method: Family tree plus regular, phonetically-motivated sound change.
• Leaks seen so far?
• Pidgins
  • Social features
  • Linguistic features
• ICP: Crowley Exercise 12.1, which is the pidginized form?
• Relation to creoles
• Creoles
  • Social features
  • Linguistic features. Crowley pp. 272--273, examples from Tok Pisin and Hatian Creole, illustrating TMA particles.
• Implications for comparative method. Is English a Romance language?

Topics: Change by contact.

Class:

• Summary of Guilder/Florin results.
• Finish discussion of Philadelpha aesc-tensing.
• Change by contact:
  • Rampant bilingualism
  • HO with examples:
    • Effect of Spanish on Quichua speakers' vowels (Guion 2003)
    • Armenian noun morphology (Trask 1996)
• Connection to wave model

Topics: Guilder/Florin results: Simulation of sound change by perceptual reanalysis.

Class:

• Design of original language. Experimental procedure.
• HW 8: What did you find?
• Similarities to, and differences from, natural sound change.

Topics: Borrowing and lexical diffusion.

Class:

• Model of change underlying comparative method:
  • Exceptionless, phonetically-conditioned sound change
  • Family-tree model of descent
• Problematic facts:
  • Last time: Analogical change (exception-ful, not phonetically conditioned)
  • This time: Exceptions to family-tree model.
• HO: "Lexical irregularity" (on Bb)
  • Crowley's Paamese isoglosses.
  • Violations of Grimm's Law in English and French (Campbell 2003)
  • vat/vane/vixen (Hock & Joseph 1996)
  • roof/hoof (Dickerson 1975, Kiparsky 1995)
  • Philadelphia "ae-tensing" (Labov 1994) (will do next time)
• Implications for use of the comparative method.

Topics: Analogical change.

Class:

• Analogy as "internal borrowing" (one form changes to be more like another).
• ICP: Paradigm levelling in Latin and Germanic (Bb).
• Some other changes considered analogical:
  • Analogical extension (seen before, following reanalysis)
  • Hypercorrection
  • January-February "contamination"
• "Aggressive reduplication" (Zuraw 2002). Comes up in HW 8.
• Progress on HW 8?

Topics: Neogrammarian sound change and its discontents.

Class

• Finish discussion of splits, mergers, and perceptual reanalysis in Seoul Korean (Silva 2006).
• HO: "Summary: Sound Change". Synthesis of Neogrammarian sound change, family-tree model, variationist sociolinguistics, and perceptual reanalysis.
• Some things it can explain; some things it can't.
• Hand out and go over HW 8, sound change in Guilder and Florin.

• Read Crowley, Ch. 11, sections 2-4 and 6, for Wednesday the 15th.
• HW 8 is due next Monday, the 20th.

Topics: Perceptual reanalysis. Tonogenesis.

Class:

• Finish off discussion of velar palatalization from last time. Connection to morphosyntactic reanalysis?
• HO: "Tonogenesis".
  • Review of tone
  • Tone split in Kammu (Svantesson and House 2006)
  • Tone/voice interaction
  • "Splits follow mergers": Seoul Korean (Silva 2006)

Topics: Sound change by perceptual reanalysis.

Class:

• Handout, "Sound change by perceptual reanalysis" (Bb)
• Progress on HW 7, Guilder/Florin transcription?

Topics: Variation and change.

Class:

• Handout, "Synchronic variation within individuals" (Bb)
• Unanswered questions: How does it start? Why are some changes systematically more frequent than others?
• Guilder/Florin experiment exposed!
• Working with Praat

Topics: Change within individuals.

Class:

• HW 6, internal reconstruction of Bahasa Indonesian verb prefixes (Crowley 1997).
• Last time: Sound change in apparent time (Martha's Vineyard).
• Can sound change happen in real time, within an individual?
• What data would you need to find out?
• HO: Harrington et al. 2000, Harrington 2007.
  • Excursus: Vowel formants.
  • Changes in the vowels in Queen Elizabeth's annual Christmas speech, 1950s to 1980s

• Download Praat. Here's a handout that may help if you are having trouble (Jen Smith). You do not need to bring your computer to class on Friday.
• Download the demo files on Bb, and open them in Praat.
• Read Crowley, Ch. 10, on observing language change.

Topics: Causes of language change.

Class:

• Questions in need of answers (not a complete list!):
  • How does a change get started?
  • Why does it catch on and spread?
  • What makes regular change regular within a language?
  • Why do some changes happen more often than others?
• Today's theme: Social factors in the initiation and spread of change.
• HO: Labov 1963, classic Martha's Vineyard study.
• Parallels in NC?
• Questions re in-progress HW 6?

Topics: Internal reconstruction. Relative chronology.

Class:

• Internal reconstruction from alternations (HO from last time, Bb)
• Finnish (Campbell 2004, started last time)
• Basque (Trask 1996)

• Read Crowley, Ch. 9, on the causes of language change, for Monday, March 30.
• HW 6, internal reconstruction, for Wednesday, April 1. (Bb)

Topics: Internal reconstruction.

Class:

• Finish off "Germanic Syndrome" from last time.
• Internal reconstruction from alternations
• ICP: Paamese (Crowley 1997)
• ICP: Tojolabal (Campbell 2004)
• ICP: Finnish (Campbell 2004) (begun; will finish on Fri.)

Topics: Subgrouping with shared innovations, including morphosyntactic and lexical innovations.

Class:

• Finish off HW 5 discussion.
  • ts=t=S=tS and tS=s=s=c sets.
  • Subgroup structure can negate "majority rules": p=k=p=p.
  • Comparative method reconstructs surface forms only.
• Shared non-phonological features. HO: "Germanic syndrome" (Bb).

Topics: Shared innovations as indicators of subgroup membership.

Class

• Go over HW 5, Proto-Tupi-Guarani.
  • Reconstruction
  • Subgroup structure
  • Effects of reconstruction decisions on subgroup decisions

• Read Crowley Ch. 6 on internal reconstruction.
• Ponder Ch. 6, Ex. 1 (not hard if you understood the Samoan example)

Topics: Comparative reconstruction and linguistic subgrouping.

Class:

• Midterm and exam
• Spring colloq
• Comments on HW 4
• Linguistic subgrouping
• Begin HW 5, Tupi-Guarani (Columbus 1974) (Bb)

Announcement: The Spring Colloquium will be Saturday in Toy Lounge. You can hear ace historical linguist Craig Melchert on "The Development of Split Ergativity in Hittite" at 4:00, and many other talks besides.

Topics: Using the comparative method: HW 4.

Class:

• Discuss HW 4, Toaripi/Orokolo (Campbell 2004).

Topics: Deciding between reconstruction hypotheses.

Class:

• Suena/Zia problem (Crowley 1997).
• Using consistency matrices to find the viable hypotheses.
• Discussion of HW 4 (in progress).
• Go over MT 1.

Topics: Reconstructing conditioned sound changes.

Class:

• Finish Korafe/Notu/Binandere from last time.
• Checking reconstruction against present-day phonology.
• Complementary distribution of contrast sets.

Topics: Introduction to the comparative method.

Class:

• Uses of the comparative method.
• Input to the c.m.: Cognate sets.
• Hypothesis space: Proto-languages plus sound changes.
• Output from c.m.: Most likely hypothesis ("reconstruction").
• Heuristics guiding choice of hypothesis (terms after Campbell 2004):
  • Plausibility of the sound changes, given what we know about sound change:
    • Economy (minimize sound changes, minimize proto-phonemes)
    • Directionality (see Chapter 2 again)
    • Common features (maximize similarity between reconstructed proto-phoneme and its reflexes)
    • "Majority rules" (last resort, corollary of Economy)
  • Plausibility of the reconstructed proto-language, given what we know about real languages:
    • Phonological fit (minimize gaps or bumps in inventory)
    • Typological fit (obey other cross-linguistic generalizations)
• ICP: Korafe/Notu/Binandere problem.

• Read rest of Ch. 5
• Thought problem: Suena/Zia, Data Set 6.

MIDTERM 1

Assignment for Monday, March 2:

• Read Crowley, Ch. 5, Section 1.
• Thought problem: Exercise 5, on Korafe/Notu/Binandere.

Topics: Converging sources of evidence for ancient pronunciation.

Class:

• Thought problem from last time: How can we tell how the Romans actually pronounced the letter C?
• Review of aspiration, with audio examples (Bb)
• ICP: Ancient Greek phi, theta, and chi -- stops or fricatives? (Bb, with corrections)
• Return HW 3.

Topics: Philology.

Class:

• Usefulness (though not necessity) of written records.
• Must be used with caution; can't just assume that the spelling tells you the pronunciation.
• Contemporary language descriptions (e.g., Hart, Tiffin for English)
• Prescriptivism (e.g., Appendix Probi)
• Hypercorrection.
• ICP: English ``silent e'' (Bb)

• Thought problem: Think of three kinds of evidence that might tell you how the letter C (as in CAESAR) was pronounced by the ancient Romans.
• Bring review questions for the midterm, which is Friday the 27th.

Topics: Copying words between languages.

Class:

• Discuss HW 3, Maori/English (Campbell)
  • Phonological changes ("loanword adaptation")
  • Clues about source-language phonology
• "Loan doublets"
• How can we check comparative reconstructions?
• Midterm syllabus (Bb)

Topics: Losing words. Changes in word meaning.

Class:

• Words leaving the lexicon: What did you find?
• Lexical-semantic change: Word stays, meaning changes. What did you find?
  • Broadening/narrowing
  • Bifurcation
  • Shift:
    • Pejoration/amelioration
    • Under/overstatement
• "Treadmill" of euphemisms and hyperbole
• Some tendencies in lexical-semantic change (Elizabeth Traugott):
  • body part > space > time
  • touch > taste > emotion
  • obligation > possibility/probability
  • physical > mental > speech-act
• Discussion of HW 3 (in progress)

Topics: Gaining words. Copying between languages.

Class:

• Words entering and leaving the lexicon: What did you find?
• Categories from Algeo 1980 (article in American Speech), English words added to Barnhart Dictionary between 1963 and 1972:
  • 34% affixing
  • 30% compounding
  • 14% shifting (new meaning for existing word)
  • 10% shortening
  • 7% borrowing
  • 5% blending ("smog")
  • <1% root creation or unknown.
• Copying (borrowing, loans)
  • Reasons: utility and prestige.
  • Phonological adaptation.
  • Possible change in meaning from source language

• No class on Friday the 20th.
• Two-week warning of Midterm 1: It will be on Friday the 27th.
• Midterm syllabus will be available Wednesday the 18th.

• For Monday, Feb. 16:
  • Read Crowley 7.4 on changes in lexical semantics.
  • Use the OED to find two English words whose meaning has changed, and think about how those changes fit into Crowley's classification.
  • Look over and think about HW 3 (Maori-English copying), and bring any questions you may have.
• For Wednesday, Feb. 18: Do HW 3 (Maori-English copying) (Bb).

Topics: Change in the lexicon: sources of new lexical items.

Class:

• A way to leave the lexicon: Grammaticalization and morphologization (from last time)
• Ways to enter it?
• The Oxford English Dictionary. If that link doesn't work, try here. Abbreviations are explained here.
• Folk etymology: lexical reanalysis

• Three words which entered the English lexicon in three different ways.
• One word which has left it (become obsolete).

Topics: Mechanisms of morphosyntactic change: Grammaticalization and morphologization.

Class:

• Words, clitics, and affixes (thought problem from last time, Bb).
• Phonological and morphological reduction.
• Grammaticalization and morphologization.
• Example: Latin habere in Spanish and French future tenses.
• Relation to isolating-agglutinating-inflecting-isolating cycle.

Topics: Mechanisms of morphosyntactic change: reanalysis and extension. Phonological change leading to reanalysis.

Class:

• Discuss HW 2, Finnish relative clauses.
• Further examples of reanalysis and analogical extension:
  • ICP: Tok Pisin longen (Crowley Ch. 7. Ex. 2).
  • ICP: Oceanic *PANI.
• Grammaticalization: Change of a lexical morpheme into a grammatical one.

• Go over Crowley Ch. 7 parts about the isolating-agglutinating-inflecting cycle.
• Think about Reading Guide Questions 2-7.
• Ponder thought problem in the handout on "Words, Clitics, and Affixes" (Bb).

Topics: Mechanisms of morphosyntactic change: reanalysis and extension.

Class:

• ICP: Nominative/Accusative or Ergative/Absolutive? (Bb)
• Reanalysis: Structurally-ambiguous surface string; default interpretation changes.
• ICP: Polynesian ergativity from last time (Bb).
• Analogical extension: A construction used in a particular circumstance is extended to similar circumstances, displacing whatever was used there before. (Discussed by Crowley under "analogy".)
• Leave 10 mins at end of class to start on HW 2.

Topics: Morphosyntactic typology and change.

Class:

• Typology as linguistic syndromes:
  • Synchronic co-occurrence (VO goes with prepositions, etc.)
  • Shared tendencies in change (isolating to agglutinative, etc.)
• Purely morphosyntactic change: Polynesian ergativty ICP (Trask 1996).
• Related topics:
  • What is a word?
  • Word-order typology beyond SVO and SOV.

• Read Crowley 7.2-7.3
• Thought problem for class discussion: Oceanic *PANI (Trask 1996, Bb).

Topics: Sound change and phonology.

Class:

• Assumptions from last time:
  • Phonemics: No phone can belong to more than one phoneme.
  • Neogrammarian sound change: Phones change; grammar adapts.
• Ways to lose an allophony rule?
• Ways to gain one?
• Problems with our assumptions: ICP on Northeastern Yiddish (King, 1980). (Bb)

• Read Crowley Ch. 7.1, on morphosyntactic typology and change.
• Prepare for class discussion with the thought problem on Bb.

Topics: Phonological consequences of phonetic change: Contrast systems.

Class:

• We've seen how words can change; how does language change?
• Assumptions:
  • Structuralist phonemics: Phonemes are sets of "phones" in complementary distribution or free variation. No phone can be in more than one phoneme. (This means we'll have to ignore words with more than one morpheme.)
  • "Neogrammarian" sound change: Pronunciations (phones) change, and grammar adapts.
• Gaining and losing phonemes in inventory (vs. adding and deleting phonemes in words)
• Ways to lose a phoneme from the inventory?
  • Phonological Atlas of North America (U. Penn.)
• Ways to gain a phoneme in the inventory?

Topics: Finding and ordering sound changes.

Class:

• HW 1, Motu.
  • Alignment; finding changes.
  • Notation; "as generally as possible"
  • Relative chronology.
  • Feeding and counterfeeding order.
  • Checking.
• Contrast and allophony in Motu.

• Review allophony from Ling 101.
• Read Crowley Ch. 4, phonetic vs. phonemic change

Topics: Multiple sound changes. Notation. Relative chronology.

Class:

• ICP: Data Set 3, Mbabaram.
• HO: Mbabaram solution (Bb).
  • Finding the changes.
  • Stating changes "as generally as possible"
  • Notation.
  • Plausibility of changes.
  • Relative chronology.
  • Checking the solution,
• ICP: Data Set 5, Lakalai. (Will finish next time.)

Assignment for Monday, January 26: Do HW 1, sound changes in Motu (Bb).

Topics: Types of sound change.

Class:

• Regular vs. sporadic sound change.
• Questions for later in the semester:
  • How do we know what changes happened?
  • Why are these the common ones?
• Recognizing types of sound change. Go over Crowley Ch. 2, Exx. 4-13 (thought assignment).
• Relationship between"strength hierarchy" and Sonority Hierarchy.

• Read Crowley, Ch. 3.
• Thought problem: Ex. 3, p. 70, about Data Set 3, Mbabaram.
• Homework warning: Actual graded HW to be assigned on Friday, due Monday.

Topics: Review of phonetics. (1) Physical meaning of features. (2) Relevant non-Ling-101 sounds.

Class:

• Why we need phonetics.
• A talking IPA chart for reference (York Univ.).
• Some low-tech ways to observe your articulators
• Vowels: height, backness, and rounding. MRIs of vowel articulations (Ladefoged)
• Glides (semivowels) as ectopic vowels.
• Consonants: Laryngeal, place, and manner features.
  • Voicing.
  • Place of articulation.
    • Dentals and retroflexes. Example: Nunggubuyu stops (Ladefoged).
    • Palatals. Example: Hungarian palatal stops (Ladefoged).
• Geminates and long vowels. Examples here (Ladefoged).
• The Sonority Hierarchy.

• Read Crowley, Ch. 2.
• Do not attempt to memorize Greek words for different kinds of insertion and deletion, but do learn the other terms mentioned in the Reading Guide Questions.
• Choose any two of Exercises 4 through 13, and come prepared to discuss them.

Topics: Persistence of language change. Geographical isolation and language "speciation".

Class:

• Some ongoing changes in English.
  • An example of "uptalk" .
• Attitudes towards them.
  • Daniel Defoe, Of Academies (1697).
  • William Labov, Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. II, pp. 513--514.
• Change is spontaneous and hard to control. Consequences?
• Crowley Ch. 1 Reading Guide questions (from assignment).
• Why are there so many languages?
• Passports. Experiment schedule.

• Read Hayes 2009, Ch. 1, a review of 101 phonetics. (Bb)
• Bring a small mirror to class.

Topics: Course organization. What is historical linguistics?

Class:

• Course organization. Syllabus (HO, Bb)
• UNC Honor Code.
• Examples of language change in English (HO, Bb)
• "Nationality" questionnaire.
• Anonymous phonetics-background survey.

• Read Crowley, Ch. 1. Come prepared to discuss Reading Guide Questions 2 through 5 (p. 33). What would be Crowley's explanation for why there are so many languages in the world?
• Think of one example of language change in your lifetime, and come to class prepared to discuss it. Does it feel like a change for the better? For the worse?