WissenschaftskollegBerlin - uni-tuebingen.de
Transcript of WissenschaftskollegBerlin - uni-tuebingen.de
The phylogeny of word meaningsInferring the directionality of semantic change from word lists
Gerhard Jägerjoint work with Alla Münch and Johannes Dellert
Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft, Tübingen
Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin
January 26, 2016
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Evolution and language change
“The formation of different languages and of distinctspecies, and the proofs that both have been developedthrough a gradual process, are curiously parallel. [...] Wefind in distinct languages striking homologies due tocommunity of descent, and analogies due to a similarprocess of formation. The manner in which certainletters or sounds change when others change is very likecorrelated growth. [...] The frequent presence ofrudiments, both in languages and in species, is still moreremarkable. [...]Languages, like organic beings, can be classed in groupsunder groups; and they can be classed either naturallyaccording to descent, or artificially by other characters.Dominant languages and dialects spread widely, and leadto the gradual extinction of other tongues.”
(Darwin, The Descent of Man)
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Evolution and language change
Vater Unser im Himmel, geheiligtwerde Dein Name
Onze Vader in de Hemel, laat UwNaam geheiligd worden
Our Father in heaven, hallowed beyour name
Fader Vor, du som er i himlene!Helliget vorde dit navn
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Evolution and language change
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 4 / 65
Evolution and language change
Middle High German:Got vater unser, dâ du bist in demhimelrîche gewaltic alles des dir ist,geheiliget sô werde dîn nam
Old High German:Fater unser thû thâr bist in himile, sigiheilagôt thîn namo
Gothic:Atta unsar þu in himinam, weihnainamo þein
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The comparative method in historical linguistics
Genetic language relationships
● In most cases, we do not have written records of earlier stages
● Regular sound correspondences provide evidence for genetic relationship though● Correspondences indicate common ancestor +
different sound shifts● The more cognates two languages share and the
fewer sound shifts separate them, the closer they are related
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Example: High German vs. West Germanic
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How historical linguists do it
Example: Polynesian languages
● Taken from Crowley & Bowern (2010)
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How historical linguists do it
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How historical linguists do it
Guidelines for reconstruction
● Only establish sound correspondences if you are reasonably sure the words are cognate
● Assume sound shifts that are plausible (are known to occur frequently)
● Assume as few sound changes as possible for reconstructing a proto-language
● The reconstructed proto-language should have a typologically plausible sound system
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How historical linguists do it
Polynesian example
● Vowels in Proto-Polynesian are unchanged in daughter languages (otherwise we would stipulate unnecessary sound shift)
● Likewise, p, m and n are unchanged● Majority rule:
● pp. *t, *N, *v → hw. k, n, w
● lenition is more likely than fortition● also, Proto-Polynesian has p and t, so it should also have a
k, hence:● pp. *k → sm., hw. 7 (rather than *7 → tg./rg. k)
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How historical linguists do it
Polynesian example
● majority rule:● pp. *f → rg. 7, hw. h
● not enough data to reconstruct the l and r● majority rule:
● pp. *h, *7 → sm., rg., hw. 0
● change s → h is known to be more common than h → s, hence (against majority rule):● pp. *s → tg./hw. h, rg. 7
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How historical linguists do it
Polynesian example
● constructing a tree
Proto-Polynesian
Tongan Samoan Rarotongan Hawaian
t->kN->nv->wk->7f->hh->07->0s->h
k->7h->07->0
f->7h->07->0s->7
s->h
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How historical linguists do it
Polynesian example
● constructing a tree
Proto-Polynesian
TonganSamoan
Rarotongan Hawaian
t->kN->nv->wf->hs->h
k->7h->07->0
f->7h->07->0s->7
s->h
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How historical linguists do it
Polynesian example
Proto-Polynesian
TonganSamoan
Rarotongan
Hawaian
t->kN->nv->wf->hs->h
k->7
f->7s->7
s->h
7->0h->0
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How historical linguists do it
Polynesian example
● reconstruction seems reasonable because● only one shift is assumed twice (s->7), and this type
is known to occur frequently● reconstruction assumes (pull-) chain shifts
– Rarotongan and Proto-Samoan/Hawaian restore the lost 7– Hawaiian additionally restores the lost k and h
● this procedure started from a reconstructed proto-language; usually tree construction and reconstructon of ancestral forms go hand in hand
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How computational biologists do it
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How computational biologists do it
Transition probabilities in a two-state model
In a symmetric two-state model with rate of change r per unit time, where
0 1r
r we have Prob (1 | 0, t, r) = 12(1− e−2 r t)
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.00.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
2 (1 1 − e
r t
r t
Pro
bab
ilit
y o
f ch
an
ge
)− 2rt
When rt is small then to very good approximation the probability of theevents in the branch is rt or 1 − rt . The latter is nearly 1.
Week 3: Parsimony variants, compatibility, statistics and parsimony – p.26/46
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How computational biologists do it
Rooted, bifurcating, labelled treesspecies number of trees
1 12 13 34 155 1056 9457 10,3958 135,1359 2,027,025
10 34,459,42511 654,729,07512 13,749,310,57513 316,234,143,22514 7,905,853,580,62515 213,458,046,676,87516 6,190,283,353,629,37517 191,898,783,962,510,62518 6,332,659,870,762,850,62519 221,643,095,476,699,771,87520 8,200,794,532,637,891,559,37530 4.9518 ×1038
40 1.00985 ×1057
50 2.75292 ×1076
Genome 570, Phylogenetic Inference – p.33/45
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How computational biologists do it
computer doggedlylooks at one damned tree after anothercomputes the likelihood of the data given that tree, andmoves on to the next tree
exhaustive search is impossible, given the astronomical number ofdifferent treesno guarantee to find the single best tree, but there are good heuristicshighly informative results:
estimates of branch lengthsconfidence values for branches of a treeprobabilistic reconstructions of ancestral states...
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How computational biologists do it
English Dutch Frenchtwo twee deuxthree drie troismountain berg montdog hond chientree boom arbretooth tand dentcold koud froid
⇒
English Dutch FrenchA A AA A AA B AA B BA B CA A AA A B
Different cognate classes for a given meaning are treated just likedifferent alleles of a gene.Once the cognacy data are in this format, the full gamut ofcomputational phylogenetics can be unleashed.
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Spectacular results
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Skeptically received by traditional historicallinguists
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A closer look at cognate classes
based on expertjudgments
usually cover ca.200 concepts(Swadesh list)
publicly availablefor very fewlanguage families(mainlyIndo-European andAustronesian) http://ielex.mpi.nl/
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Phylogenetic inference with cognate classes
defines aclassification oflanguages intodiscrete states foreach Swadeshconceptexample:Indo-European,concept foot
AshkunSogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
HindiLahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech PPolish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
CornishBreton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite LadinoRomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencalCatalanBrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German MunichSchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegianDanishDanish FjoldeGutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Phylogenetic inference with cognate classes
cognate classes are mathematically treated like alleles of a gene, ordifferent DNA lettersevolution as continuous time Markov chain:
evolution along continuous time line (no discrete generations)a language spontaneously, at each point in time
split into two daughter languages, orchange it’s state for any concept
state transition probability density described by rate matrix
for a given tree structure (with branch lengths) and rate matrix, eachdistribution of observed states at the leaves has a well-definedlikelihood
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Phylogenetic inference with cognate classes
Inference methods:Maximum Likelihood:
find the tree structure/rate matrix combination maximizing thelikelihood of observed distribution of cognacy classes over languages
Bayesian inference:assume prior distributions over tree structures and rate matricesmay incorporate historical, archaeological, linguistic etc. informationgenerate posterior distribution over trees
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Practical issues
for n cognate classes, n2 − n transition rates have to be fitted ⇒often insufficient datatherefore binary recoding of cognate classification:
each cognate class is a separate featurevalues are 1 (present in a language) and 0 (absent)
only two rates need to be fitted per concept
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Practical issues
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Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 35 / 65
Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 36 / 65
Ashkun
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhi
BaluchiKurdishZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Old PersianAvestan
Vedic Sanskrit Kashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy GkSinghalese
Old Prussian LatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Old BretonOld CornishOld Welsh
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
GaulishOld Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic ScotsManx
OscanUmbrian
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian CSardinian N
Latin
Gothic
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English English
Old Gutnish
Old Norse Icelandic StFaroeseOld Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Tocharian ATocharian B
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdTsakonianGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
LycianLuvianHittite
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Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 37 / 65
Parallel evolution
by definition, each cognate class can emerge only oncetransition rate 0→ 1 should thus be exceedingly smallno parallel evolution 0→ 1 to be expectedonly expected exception: undetected borrowingsHowever (see next slide...)
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 38 / 65
Parallel evolution
SogdianOsseticDigor OsseticIron OsseticWakhiShughniSariqoli
BaluchiZazakiTadzikPersianPashtoWaziri
Avestan
Vedic SanskritKashmiri
Hindi
LahndaPanjabi StUrduSindhiMarwariGujaratiMarathiOriyaBengaliBihariNepaliKhaskuraGypsy Gk
Old PrussianLatvianLithuanian OLithuanian St
Bulgarian PBulgarianMacedonianMacedonian PSerbocroatianSerbianSerbocroatian PSlovenian
Slovenian PRussianRussian PUkrainian P
PolishUkrainianByelorussianByelorussian P
SlovakCzech ECzechSlovak PCzech P
Polish PUpper SorbianLower Sorbian
Old Church Slavonic
Cornish
Breton SeBreton ListBreton StWelsh CWelsh N
Old Irish
Irish AIrish BGaelic Scots
VlachRumanian List
Dolomite Ladino
RomanshLadinFriulianItalian
WalloonFrenchProvencal
Catalan
BrazilianPortuguese StSpanish
Sardinian LSardinian C
Latin
AfrikaansFlemishDutch ListFrisian
GermanStandard German Munich
SchwyzerduetschLetzebuergeschPennsylvania Dutch
Old High GermanOld English
Old Gutnish
Old NorseIcelandic StFaroese
Old Swedish
StavangerskNorwegian
DanishDanish Fjolde
Gutnish LauOevdalianSwedishSwedish UpSwedish Vl
Albanian T
Ancient Greek
Greek MlGreek DGreek MdGreek ModGreek K
Classical ArmenianArmenian ModArmenian List
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leg:Q
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 39 / 65
Parallel evolution
apparently independent emergence of leg:Q in Greek, Icelandic,Romanian and Proto-Indo-Iraniantraditional scholarship:
members of class leq:Q are cognate to members of foot:Bboth cognate classes descend from Proto-Indo-European *ped-parallel semantic change foot → leg in several branches ofIndo-European
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 40 / 65
Testing for correlated evolution
Following Pagel and Meade (2006) (see also Dunn et al. 2011), usingsoftware BayesTraits(http://www.evolution.rdg.ac.uk/BayesTraits.html)
model comparison
leg:B = 0
leg:B = 1
foot:Q = 0
foot:Q = 1
foot:B=0leg:Q=0
foot:B=1leg:Q=0
foot:B=0leg:Q=1
foot:B=1leg:Q=1
log Bayes Factor ≈ 243 in favor of second model ⇒ strong evidencedownsides:
strong evidence in favor of dependence, but weak evidence in favor ofdirectionalityinformation about Swadesh entries of a single family does not affordscaling up
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 41 / 65
Polysemy networks
A polysemy network (cf. Dellert and Münch 2015, see also List et al.2013) is
a graph over concepts (expressed by glosses)where each link represents the fact that at least one language has alexical item which can denote both concepts (or rather: can betranslated by both glosses)if we count the number of instances in different language families, linkstrength measures cross-linguistic colexification between concepts
Polysemy networks are a potential source of evidence for plausibility ofsemantic shifts:
intuition: every instance of semantic shift needs to pass anintermediate stage where the word in question is polysemousa massively cross-linguistic polysemy network provides us with asnapshot of semantic evolution in action
⇒ Polysemy networks might be a good model for modeling semanticchange in computational historical linguistics!
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 42 / 65
Polysemy networks
Question: How well does a polysemy network model attestedsemantic shifts?Data:
a massively cross-linguistic polysemy network (TUE) developed inTübingen within EVOLAEMP (Dellert, 2014)the Catalogue of Semantic Shifts (ZAL) maintained by the Russianacademy of sciences (Zalizniak, 2008; Zalizniak et al., 2012)
Method: for each attested change, determine the length of theshortest paths between the relevant concepts in the network
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 43 / 65
Tübingen Polysemy Network (TUE)
is derived from a large German-based dictionary database containingmore than 750,000 entries in 114 languageshas near-complete coverage of a 1,000-item list of basic concepts in 88languagesis built on more than 10,000 translations each for 31 languages from10 primary language families of Eurasiais available to other researchers upon request
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 44 / 65
Tübingen Polysemy Network (TUE): Some data
32,653 concepts and 47,647 linksa central connected componentof 13,073 nodes (!)1,640 smaller components and14,391 unconnected islandsan average of 2.4 neighbors foreach nodea typical shortest path lengthof 8
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 45 / 65
Small world characteristics
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 46 / 65
The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts
crosslinguistically recurring shifts collected manually by expertsno restrictions or preferences in the range of meanings or languages(de facto: focus on Eurasian)contained 3,650 semantic shifts at the time of publicationclassified into six types, each supported by up to 40 realizationspublicly available via a web interface:http://semshifts.iling-ran.ru/
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 47 / 65
Procedure
English version of the catalogue was extracted from the websiteconsiderable semi-automated cleanup workthe total number of shift pairs in the result: 6,174
Preperatory steps
metalanguages of thecatalogue: English and Russian
primary language of theTübingen Polysemy Network:German
electronic English-Germandictionary needed to be useedas an intermediary forcomparing the links in bothresources
Experiment
evaluate pairs of Englishglosses in the catalogue againstthe network by determining theshortest paths in thenetwork between any pair ofGerman translationequivalents
do this separately for eachtype, and compare recall
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 48 / 65
Example
Bein::N
Bein[Tisch]::N
Fuß::N
Fuß[Maß]::NFüßchen::N
Keule::N
Keule[Gastronomie]::N
Knochen::N
Lammkeule::N Oberschenkel::NPfote::N
Schenkel::NSohle::N
Stamm::N
Stütze::N
Tatze::N
Unterschenkel::N
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 49 / 65
Results
Types of Semantic Shifts in the CataloguePolysemyDiachronic Semantic EvolutionSyncretismCognatesBorrowingsMorphological Derivation
Only Diachronic Semantic Evolution, Cognates, and Borrowings containinstances of semantic change in the stricter sense.
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 50 / 65
Results
Polysemysynchronic polysemy: A and Bare meanings of a polysemouswordZAL: tree — forest / TUE:Baum ‘tree’ — Holz ‘wood’ —Wald ‘forest’Example: Tuvan yjash ‘tree;forest’
Baum::N
Holz::N
Stab::N
Stange::N
Stock::N
hölzern::A
Brennholz::N
Dschungel::N
Wald::N
Forst::N
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 51 / 65
Results
Diachronic semantic evolutionDiachronic semantic evolution ofa word in one language or froman ancestor language to adescendant languageZAL: board, plank — table, desk/ TUE: Brett ‘board’ — Tisch‘table’Example: Latin tabula ‘plate,tablet’ → Italian tavola ‘table’
Bord::N
Brett::N
Platte::NScheibe::NSchild::N
Tafel::N
Tisch::N Schreibtisch::N
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 52 / 65
Results
Diachronic semantic evolutionDiachronic semantic evolution ofa word in one language or froman ancestor language to adescendant languageZAL: catch — hunt / TUE:jagen ‘hunt’ — fangen ‘catch’Example: Latin capto ‘variousmeanings related to catching’ →Italian cacciare ‘to hunt’
anfangen::V
beginnen::V
fangen::V
fassen::V
greifen::V
angeln::V
fischen::V
bekommen::V
empfangen::V ergreifen::V
erhalten::V
kriegen::V
nehmen::V
eilen::V
fahren::V
jagen::V
laufen::V
rennen::V
halten::V treiben::V
verfolgen::V
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 53 / 65
Results
Diachronic semantic evolutionDiachronic semantic evolution ofa word in one language or froman ancestor language to adescendant languageZAL: mountain — nose / TUE:Berg ‘mountain’ — Hügel ‘hill’— Gipfel ‘summit’ — Spitze‘tip’ — Nase ‘nose’Example: Hungarian orr ‘nose’← ‘top, mountain’
Abhang::N
Hang::NHügel::N
Anfang::NEnde::N
Kopf::NSpitze::N
Anhöhe::N
Gipfel::N
Haufen::N
Höhe::N
Berg::NFels::NFelsen::N
Gebirge::N
Dach::N
Deckel::N
Schluss::N
Scheitel::N
oberer::A
Nase::N
Schnabel::N
Schnauze::N
Stachel::N
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 54 / 65
Results
Cognatesmeanings A and B belong towords of two sister languageswhich have developed from thesame root in their commonancestorZAL: hear — understand /TUE: hören ‘hear’ - verstehen‘understand’Example: French entendre ‘tohear’ — Spanish entender ‘tounderstand, to beknowledgeable’
Verständnis::N
begreifen::Vverstehen::V
erfassen::V erkennen::V
fassen::V
wahrnehmen::V
empfinden::Verfahren::V
fühlen::Vhören::V
spüren::V
vernehmen::Vwissen::V
umfassen::V
vermuten::Verreichen::V
können::V
jm_gehören::V
zuhören::V
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 55 / 65
Results
BorrowingsB is the meaning of a borrowedword, while A is the meaning ofits source in the donor languageZAL: bell — watch/clock /TUE: Glocke ‘bell’ - Uhr‘watch/clock’Example: Medieval Latin clocca‘bell’ → English clock ‘clock,watch’
Armbanduhr::N
Uhr::N
Glocke::N
Klingel::N Stunde::N
Uhrzeit::N
Zeit::N
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 56 / 65
Results
Table: Shifts in the catalogue covered by the polysemy network.
Semantic Number of No Path length Path lengthshift type instances path 1 or 2 3 and morePolysemy 2315 20.6 % 35.0 % 44.4 %Semantic 107 26.2 % 33.6 % 40.2 %EvolutionMorphological 597 28.5 % 29.0 % 42.5 %DerivationSyncretism 43 25.6 % 55.8 % 18.6 %Borrowing 58 31.0 % 41.4 % 27.6 %Cognates 393 23.7 % 37.9 % 38.4 %
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 57 / 65
Towards detecting directional biases in meaningchange
Assumptionsmeaning change proceeds along the edges of the polysemy graphfor each possible transition, there is a fixed transition rate, acrosslanguage families and times → ultimately founded in cognition
Research questionsCan we estimate those rates from data?Can we detect directional biases?
RequirementMany data — across language families and beyond the Swadesh list
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 58 / 65
The NorthEuraLex database
Massive data collection effort ofthe Tübingen EVOLAEMPproject(currently) translations of 1,017concepts into 103 (mostly)Northern Eurasian languages (cf.Dellert, 2015)everything transcriped in IPA(so far) no manual cognatecoding
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 59 / 65
Automatic cognate classification
clustering of the wordsfor a given conceptheuristic technique basedon phonetic similarityso far only roughapproximation to expertclassification
Language Word Cognate class
Dra.Southern Dravidian.Kannada paada Fuß:12IE.Baltic.Lithuanian peeda Fuß:12IE.Greek.Greek po8i Fuß:12IE.Indic.Hindi pEEr Fuß:12IE.Indic.Hindi paaw Fuß:12IE.Iranian.Ossetic fad Fuß:12IE.Iranian.Pashto psa Fuß:12IE.Iranian.Persian paa Fuß:12IE.Romance.French pye Fuß:12IE.Romance.Italian piede Fuß:12IE.Romance.Portuguese pE Fuß:12IE.Romance.Spanish pye Fuß:12Kor.Korean.Korean pal Fuß:12Ura.Permic.Udmurt p3d Fuß:12Alt.Tungusic.Manchu pothxo Fuß:6Brs.Burushaski.Burushaski ut Fuß:6Brs.Burushaski.Burushaski utis Fuß:6IE.Armenian.Armenian votkh Fuß:6IE.Germanic.Danish foo78 Fuß:6IE.Germanic.Dutch vut Fuß:6IE.Germanic.English fut Fuß:6IE.Germanic.German fuus Fuß:6IE.Germanic.Icelandic foutir Fuß:6IE.Germanic.Norwegian fuut Fuß:6IE.Germanic.Swedish fuut Fuß:6
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 60 / 65
Getting a handle on meaning change
two cognate classes Aand B, for concepts cAand cB, are merged if
cA and cB areneighbors in thepolysemy graphin at least onelanguage, A and Bare instantiated by thesame phonetic string
Language Word Cognate class
Dra.Southern Dravidian.Kannada paada footIE.Baltic.Lithuanian peeda footIE.Greek.Greek po8i footIE.Indic.Hindi pEEr footIE.Indic.Hindi paaw footIE.Iranian.Ossetic fad footIE.Iranian.Pashto psa footIE.Iranian.Persian paa footIE.Romance.French pye footIE.Romance.Italian piede footIE.Romance.Portuguese pE footIE.Romance.Spanish pye footKor.Korean.Korean pal footUra.Permic.Udmurt p3d footAlt.Tungusic.Nanai b3gdi Bein:9IE.Greek.Greek po8i Bein:9IE.Indic.Bengali pa Bein:9IE.Iranian.Pashto psa Bein:9IE.Iranian.Persian paa Bein:9Krt.Kartvelian.Georgian phExi Bein:9Ura.Permic.Udmurt p3d Bein:9
0see also (Dellert, 2016) for a different approachGerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 61 / 65
Getting a handle on meaning change
treat each merged cognate class as feature and meaning as valuefit a model with two parameters:
transition rate foot → legtransition rate leg → foot
Language Word meaning
Alt.Tungusic.Nanai b3gdi legDra.Southern Dravidian.Kannada paada footIE.Baltic.Lithuanian peeda footIE.Greek.Greek po8i foot legIE.Indic.Bengali pa legIE.Indic.Hindi pEEr/paaw footIE.Iranian.Ossetic fad footIE.Iranian.Pashto psa foot legIE.Iranian.Persian paa foot legIE.Romance.French pye footIE.Romance.Italian piede footIE.Romance.Portuguese pE footIE.Romance.Spanish pye footKor.Korean.Korean pal footKrt.Kartvelian.Georgian phExi legUra.Permic.Udmurt p3d foot leg
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 62 / 65
Results
no evidence of directional bias forfoot ↔ legmoon ↔ months
foot/leg
bias
−1.0 −0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
mean = −0.021
95% HDI−0.674 0.808
moon/month
bias
−1.5 −1.0 −0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5
mean = 0.0238
95% HDI−0.964 0.871
0model fitted using BayesTraits (Pagel and Meade, 2014); tree sample generatedwith BayesPhylogenies (Pagel and Meade, 2015)
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 63 / 65
Results
clear evidence of directional bias forsun ↔ daytongue ↔ language
sun/day
bias
1 2 3 4 5 6
mean = 2.13
95% HDI0.852 3.37
tongue/language
bias
−2 0 2 4 6
mean = 2.28
95% HDI0.593 4.11
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 64 / 65
Conclusion
method suffers from poor quality of cognate classificationresults therefore to be taken with a pound of saltstill, proof of concept that crosslinguistic lexical data provide a handleon studying laws of meaning evolution
Great potential for combining cognitive with phylogeneticmethods!
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen) Phylogeny of word meanings 1/26/2016 65 / 65
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