Complexity and the age of languages X X X

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Complexity and the age of languagesXXX

• Umberto Ansaldo Sebastian Nordhoff
• ACLC/ Theoretical LinguisticsUniversiteit van
  Amsterdam

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Background issues

• Is age related to morphological type?
• Age and the Creole Prototype
• Does speed matter?
• The role of adstrate typology
• The role of community type

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Sri Lanka Malay - community and language

• Migrations to SL from Indonesian/ Malaysia
  Portuguese rule (until 1656) - Slave Island?
  Dutch rule (1656-1796) political exiles, slaves,
  soldiers. British rule (1796-1948) soldiers
• Tight-knit, open social network type
• The Lexifier Malay LF, predominant around
  15thC, along trade routes between S China and NW
  India
• The adstrates Sinhala, Tamil. Social equality
  among L1-L2-L3 speakers. (No substrate-superstrate
  in SLM)
• Typological dominance in the feature pool
  Sinhalese SL Tamil (congruence) - Malay LF -
  (some Dutch, English, Port. elements - mostly
  lexicon)

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Case system of Kirinda Java
Universiteit van Amsterdam We could present
sedang as portmanteau and thus leave out the
discussion of dang here
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Case marking in KJ, Sinhala and Tamil
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Universiteit van Amsterdam Ex (3) Are you sure
that this is not a relative clause (The rifle
that the man possesses is good?). This would
explain the SVO, and also the N Adj order. We
might get in trouble if we claim somewhere else
that SLM is rigid SOV Ex(4) As a sidenote, I
wonder about the function of negation here. -O

• (1) go-dang Mr. Jalaldeen-yang kutumun
• I-DAT Mr. J-ACC see
• I see Mr. Jalaldeen
• (2) goppe tumman go-yang e-tolak
• IPOSS friend I-ACC PAST-push
• My friend pushed me
• nembak orang-ka ada snapan bae
• hunt man-LOC have rifle good
• The hunter has a good rifle
• market-ring ais thra baaru
  ikkang billi bawa
• market-INST/ABL ice NEG new fish buy
  bring
• Get me some fresh fish from the market

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Evolution of case systems

• Typically diachronically stable
• Imply gradual development (ca. 600 years?)
• Evidence of mature systems

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Evolution of dative and accusative case in SLM
Universiteit van Amsterdam In Kandy, suka
governs NOM. Interesting for variation

• From possessive marker to Experiencer/ Goal
• Reanalysis of -nya structures in Malay
• (a) Buku ini Lisa-nya (Malay)
• Book this Lisa-POSS
• This is Lisas book but also this book
  is of/ for Lisa
• (b) Lisa-nang buku suka
• Lisa likes (a/the) book
• Nya gt nang by ng insertion under typological
  pressure
• (highly frequent Lankan feature found in SLM)

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Universiteit van Amsterdam Kandy uwangprize I
suppose this is StdM?

• From Experiencer/ Goal to Definite Object
• Split of Dat/Acc functions
• nang gt yang
• Note that in Malay -nya is frequently used as a
  marker of definiteness (and/or Focus) in
  non-possessive constructions, e.g.
• (c) uang-nya tidak cukup
• money-DEF NEG enough
• The/ this money is not sufficient

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Reminder

• Is structural type a reflection of age?
• Is structural type related to rate of change?
• NOW TO PART II

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Upcountry M. verbal system
Universiteit van Amsterdam I underlined the
agglutinating words for better orientation. Not
sure that this is a good idea.

• I. Agglutinative morphology
• (5) jiiva salba-king-na n?-laari
• life save-CAUSE-DAT PST-run
• 'They ran to save their lives'
•  
• (6) Rani-pe thaandak-an-nale
  Farook-pe nyaani
• Rani-POSS dance-NMLZR-DATASSOC Farook-POSS
  song
• m?-dingar-nale suuka
• INF-hear-DATASSOC like
• 'I like Rani's dancing and to hear Farook sing'
• (7) lorang-na m?-draiv-king-na
  se thi-luppas
• 2s.HONOR-DAT INF-drive-CAUS-DAT 1s IRR-allow
• I will let you drive

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Universiteit van Amsterdam Maybe use godang
instead of goppe. Dang is not attested outside
the pronominal system, pe is. So things involving
dang are more portmanteau-y

• II. Fusional morphology
• mannari lt mana dhari from where
• panna lt pada nang PL.DAT
• drampe lt derang pe 3PL.POSS
• goppe 1SG.POSS

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Agreement
Universiteit van Amsterdam Added example without
agreement

• (8) piisang s-ara-maakang
• banana 1s-PROG-eat
• I am eating a banana'
• se piisang s-ara-makang
• se piisang ara-makang
• (9) paama awuliya se-jaarispaama
• 3.HONOR saint PST-become3.HONOR
• 'he became a saint'

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Irregularity/ complexity

• Universiteit van Amsterdam
• - I put some colors
• I changed the () to (-)
• I suggest deleting the last row because it
  weakens our point

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Opaque compositions

• pisang janthong
• banana darling
• 'banana flower'

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Conclusions I
Universiteit van Amsterdam I suggest a less
suggestive conclusion (3).

• SLM is to be considered old because of its
  complexity
• 350 years are enough to build up this complexity
• Languages older than 350 years can no longer be
  called young
• Most  Atlantic Creoles cannot be called young ?
  
• (1) What generalizations can be made about
  languages younger than 350years?
• (2) Is there a different minimum age for
  complexity? 200yrs, 100 yrs, 50yrs, 1 yr?
• (3) Is there a flaw in our current understanding
  of language birth and age of languages?

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Conclusions II

• The Feature Pool determines the structural output
• The type of community determines the rate of
  change
• Evolution of full case system in SLM gradual but
  efficient
• Distinction between instantiation of change
  immediate - and diffusion gradual (Lightfoot
  1999). Speed is a manifestation of diffusion (or
  propagation), i.e. social shift in a small,
  tight community happens more efficiently, i.e.
  may be perceived as fast (cp. Nettle, Trudgill,
  Ansaldo)

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The Tamil bias

• (a) Hussainmiya 1987
• Malay-Moor intermarriage a number of, next
  to Malay-Ambonese/ Malabarese/ Sinhalese
• Language SLM is influenced by Sinhala, Tamil
  or both
• (b) Hussainmiya 1990 religious affinity between
  Moors and Malays relates episodes of religious
  exchange to suggest frequent exchanges
• (c) Bakker 2000 SLP gt SLM analogy
• (d) Smith 2001 on ACC we can only argue for
  lack of Sinhala evidence, rather than positive
  Tamil influence
• (e) Smith et al 2004 in between claiming
  influence from Tamil (based on (d) and claiming
  general Lankan influence
• (g) Heine Kuteva 2005 SLM is heavily
  restructured Tamil.