Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:46:16.652Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A corpus-based quantitative analysis of twelve centuries of preterite and past participle morphology in Dutch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2020

Isabeau De Smet  and
Freek Van de Velde
Isabeau De Smet
Affiliation:
University of Leuven; Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)
Freek Van de Velde
Affiliation:
University of Leuven
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Germanic preterite morphology has been the subject of a bewildering number of studies, looking especially at the competition between the so-called strong inflection (operating with ablaut), and the so-called weak inflection (operating with suffixation). In this study over 250,000 observations from twelve centuries of Dutch were analyzed in a generalized linear mixed-effect model gauging the effects of a multitude of language-internal factors, ranging from various frequency measures to various form-related factors and how they interact with each other. This study confirms the well-known effects of token and type frequency, finding that formal similarities can be both a driving and conservative force in language change and demonstrates that not all members (i.e., preterites and past participles) of a verb paradigm change at the same time, which is both an effect of their frequency and their formal coherence within the paradigm.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 241 - 265
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

DWDS – Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Das Wortauskunftssystem zur deutschen Sprache in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. https://www.dwds.de/Google Scholar
Abraham, Werner, & Conradie, C. Jac. (2001). Präteritumschwund und Diskursgrammatik. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambridge, Ben, Kidd, Evan, Rowland, Caroline F., & Theakston, Anna L. (2015). The ubiquity of frequency effects in first language acquisition. Journal of Child Language 42:239–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baayen, R. Harald, & Milin, Petar. (2010). Analyzing reaction times. International Journal of Psychological Research 3(2):12–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baerman, Mathew. (2011). Defectiveness and homophony avoidance. Journal of Linguistics 47:1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Christopher Gordon. (1997). The etymology of the Old High German weak verb: volume 1. Doctoral dissertation, University of Newcastle.Google Scholar
Bartoń, Kamil. (2018). Multi-model Inference. R package 1.42.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MuMIn.Google Scholar
Bates, Douglas, Maechler, Martin, Bolker, Ben, & Walker, Steve. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1):1–48. <doi:10.18637/jss.v067.i01>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Dale Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. (2015). Boon, Ton den & Hendrickx, Ruud (Eds.). Fifteenth edition, . Antwerp: Van Dale Uitgevers.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (1985). Morphology: A study between meaning and form. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (1995). Regular Morphology and the Lexicon. Language and Cognitive Processes 10:425–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (2006). From usage to grammar: The mind's response to repetition. Language 82:711–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Ryan, Svare, Ragnar, & Salmons, Joseph. (2012). Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of German verbs. Journal of Historical Linguistics 2:153–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coussé, Evie. (2011). On ambiguous past participles in Dutch. Linguistics 49:611–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coussé, Evie. (2013). The grammaticalization of the have perfect in Dutch. A corpus study of contextual extension and semantic generalization. Language Sciences:103–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuskley, Christine, Pugliese, Martina, Castellano, Claudio, Colaiori, Francesca, Loreto, Vittorio, & Tria, Francesca. (2014). Internal and external dynamics in language: evidence from verb regularity in a historical corpus of English. PLoS ONE 9(8):e102882.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dale, Rick, & Lupyan, Gary. (2012). Understanding the origins of morphological diversity: the linguistic niche hypothesis. Advances in Complex Systems 15:3–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dammel, Antje, & Nowak, Jessica. (2015). Zur Reorganisation starker Verbklassen im West- und Ostfriesischen. In Conference proceedings, Philologia Frisica 2014, Leeuwarden, 307–28.Google Scholar
Dammel, Antje, Nowak, Jessica, Schmuck, Mirjam. (2010). Strong-verb paradigm leveling in four Germanic languages: a category frequency approach. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 22:337–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dauzat, Albert. (1927). Les patois: évolution, classification. Paris: Delagrave.Google Scholar
De Clerck, Bernard, & Vanopstal, Klaar. (2015). Patterns of regularisation in British, American and Indian English: A closer look at irregular verbs with t/ ed variation. In Collins, Peter (Ed.), Grammatical Change in English World-Wide. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 335–72.Google Scholar
De Smet, Isabeau, & Van de Velde, Freek. (2019). Reassessing the evolution of West-Germanic preterite inflection. Diachronica 36(2):139–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vogelaer, Gunther, & Coussé, Evie. (2011). The functional nature of pronominal change: Innovative plural pronouns in English and Dutch. Neophilologus 95:1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vriendt, Sera F.L. (1965). Sterke werkwoorden en sterke werkwoordsvormen in de 16de eeuw. Brussel: Belgisch interuniversitair centrum voor neerlandistiek.Google Scholar
Drinka, Bridget. (2013). Sources of auxiliation in the perfects of Europe. Studies in Language 37(3):599–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fertig, David. (2009). Are strong verbs really dying to fit in? (Paper presented at GLAC 15, Banff, May 2009.)Google Scholar
Fox, John. (2003). Effect displays in R for generalised linear models. Journal of Statistical Software 8(15):1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gahl, Susanne. (2008). “Time” and “Thyme” are not homophones: The effect of lemma frequency on word durations in spontaneous speech. Language 84(3):474–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, & Hill, Jennifer. (2007). Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilliéron, Jules, & Roques, Mario. (1912). Etudes de géographie linguistique d'après l'Atlas linguistique de la France. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Gries, Stefan Th. (2015). The most under-used statistical method in corpus linguistics: multi-level (and mixed-effects-models). Corpora 10(1):95–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haeseryn, Walter, Romijn, Kristin, Geerts, Guido, de Rooij, Jaap, & van den Toorn, Maarten C. (1997). Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst. 2nd Edn. Groningen/Deurne: Martinus Nijhoff uitgevers/Wolters Plantyn.Google Scholar
Hare, Mary, & Elman, Jeffrey L. (1995). Learning and Morphological Change. Cognition 56:61–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrell, Frank E. Jr. (with contributions from Charles Dupont and many others). (2015). Hmisc: Harrell Miscellaneous. R package version 3.17–1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=HmiscGoogle Scholar
Hempen, Ute. (1988). Die starken Verben im Deutschen und Niederländischen. Tübingen: Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaccard, James. (2001). Interaction effects in logistic regression. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jescheniak, Jörg D., & Levelt, Willem J.M. (1994). Word frequency effects in speech production: retrieval of syntactic information and of phonological form. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 20(4):824–43.Google Scholar
Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek. (2000). Juliana Pijnenburg, Wilhelmus Johannes, van Dalen-Oskam, Karina H., Depuydt, Katrien & Schoonheim, Tanneke H., Aalbrecht, H.T., Burger, Peter, van Dalen, M.C., Dambrink, G.H., van Diepen, M.J.M & Stooker, K. (Eds.). (http://gtb.ivdnt.org)Google Scholar
Knooihuizen, Remco, & Strik, Oscar. (2014). Relative productivity potentials of Dutch verbal inflection patterns. Folia Linguistica Historica 35:173–200.Google Scholar
Köpcke, Klaus-Michael. (1999). Prototypisch starke und schwache Verben der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. In Butt, Matthias & Fuhrhop, Nanna (Eds.), Variation und Stabilität in der Wortstruktur. Untersuchungen zu Entwicklung, Erwerb und Varietäten des Deutschen und anderer Sprachen. Hildesheim: Olms. 45–60.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger. (1997). Historical linguistics and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, Erez, Jean-Baptiste, Michel, Jackson, Joe, Tang, Tina, & Nowak, Martin A. (2007). Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language. Nature 449:713–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Middelnederlandsch woordenboek. (1885–1941). Eelco Verwijs, Jakob Verdam, Frederik Stoett, Willem De Vreese, G.I. Lieftinck & Anton Beekman. (http://gtb.ivdnt.org)Google Scholar
Nelder, J.A. (1977). A reformulation of linear models. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General). 140(1):48–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nowak, Jessica. (2011). Zur Herausbildung semantischer Differenzierungen bei Konjugationsdubletten. In Schmid, Hans Ulrich & Ziegler, Arne (Eds.), Jahrbuch für germanistische Sprachgeschichte, Band 2: Historische Semantik. Berlin: De Gruyter. 312–25.Google Scholar
Nowak, Jessica. (2015). Zur Legitimation einer 8. Ablautreihe. Eine kontrastive Analyse zu ihrer Entstehung im Deutschen, Niederländischen und Luxemburgischen. Hildesheim: Olms.Google Scholar
Nowak, Jessica. (2018). Ablaut reorganisation: The case of German x-o-o. In Dammel, Antje, Eitelmann, Mathias & Schmuck, Mirjam (Eds.), Reorganising grammatical variation. Diachronic studies in retention, redistribution and refunctionalisation of linguistic variants. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 150–74.Google Scholar
Oostdijk, Nelleke, Reynaert, Martin, Hoste, Véronique & van den Heuvel, Henk. (2013). SoNaR User Documentation. Version 1.0.4. (https://ivdnt.org/images/stories/producten/documentatie/sonar_documentatie.pdf)Google Scholar
Pijpops, Dirk, Beuls, Katrien, & Van de Velde, Freek. (2015). The rise of the verbal weak inflection in Germanic: an agent based model. Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands Journal 5:81–102.Google Scholar
Pijpops, Dirk, De Smet, Isabeau, & Van de Velde, Freek. (2018). Constructional contamination in morphology and syntax. Four case studies. Constructions and Frames 10(2):269–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinker, Steven, & Ullman, Michael T. (2002). The past-tense debate: the past and future of the past tense. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences 6(11):456–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramscar, Michael. (2002). The role of meaning in inflection: Why the past tense does not require a rule. Cognitive Psychology 45:45–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Core Team. (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna. http://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Salsburg, David. (2001). The lady tasting tea: How statistics revolutionized science in the twentieth century. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Strik, Oscar. (2015). Modelling analogical change: A history of Swedish and Frisian verb inflection. Doctoral dissertation, University of Groningen.Google Scholar
Taeldeman, Johan. (2011). De vorming van het ‘zwakke’ preteritum in de zuidelijke Nederlandse dialecten: een tentatieve benadering van twee aspecten. Verslagen en Mededelingen van de KANTL 121(2):183–204.Google Scholar
Van Bree, Cor. (1987). Historische grammatica van het Nederlands. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Van Dale Rijmwoordenboek. (2018). Van Dale Uitgevers. https://rijmwoordenboek.vandale.nl/Google Scholar
Van de Velde, Freek, De Smet, Hendrik, & Ghesquière, Lobke. (2013). On multiple source constructions in language change. Studies in Language 37(3):473–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van de Velde, Freek, & Kestemont, Britta. (2015). Using mixed-effects logistic regression to assess the determinants of regularisation of strong inflection in Dutch. (Paper presented at SLE 48 Workshop. Shifting classes: Germanic strong and weak preterites and participles, Leiden, 3 September 2015.)Google Scholar
Van de Velde, Freek, & Petré, Peter. (2020). Historical linguistics. In Knight, Dawn & Adolphs, Svenja (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English language and digital humanities. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Van Haeringen, Coenraad B. (1940). De taaie levenskracht van het sterke werkwoord. De Nieuwe taalgids 31:241–55.Google Scholar
Van Loon, Jozef. (2005). Principles of historical morphology. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.Google Scholar
Van Loon, Jozef. (2014). Historische fonologie van het Nederlands. Schoten: Universitas.Google Scholar
Van Olmen, Daniel. (2019). A diachronic corpus study of prenominal zo'n ‘so a’ in Dutch: Pathways, analogy and (inter)subjectification. Functions of Language 26(2):217–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Santen, Ariane. (1997). Hoe sterk zijn de sterke werkwoorden? In Santen, Ariane van & van der Wal, Marijke (Eds.), Taal in tijd en ruimte: voor Cor van Bree bij zijn afscheid als hoogleraar historische taalkunde en taalvariatie aan de vakgroep Nederlands van de Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. Leiden: Stichting Neerlandistiek Leiden. 45–56.Google Scholar
Vosters, Rik. (2012). Geolinguistic data and the past tense debate: Linguistic and extralinguistic aspects of Dutch verb regularization. In Vogelaer, Gunther De & Seiler, Guido (Eds.), The dialect laboratory: dialects as a testing ground for theories of language change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 227–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickham, Hadley. (2016). ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickham, Hadley, & François, Romain. (2019). dplyr: A grammar of data manipulation. R package version 0.8.3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=dplyrGoogle Scholar
Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal. (1851–1998). Matthias De Vries & Allard te Winkel. (http://gtb.ivdnt.org)Google Scholar
Zuur, Alain F., Ieno, Elena N., Walker, Neil J., Saveliev, Anatoly & M. Smith, Graham (Eds.). (2009). Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R: statistics for biology and health. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

De Smet and Van de Velde supplementary material

Appendix

Download De Smet and Van de Velde supplementary material(File)
File 36 KB