Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CompSubjInf (Competition between subjunctive and infinitive in the history of German, Balkan Slavic and Romance languages)
Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2024-08-31
The project focused on the area of language change and evolution (i.e. diachronic linguistics), specifically as it pertains to the use of the subjunctive (Subj) and infinitive (Inf). These two categories are involved in a phenomenon of grammatical competition (CompSubjInf), which has different manifestations across European languages. In Germanic languages (e.g. German, Swedish, English), Subj receded over time while Inf remained more stable. Balkan languages (e.g. Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian) largely lost Infs and replaced them with Subjs. Romance languages (e.g. Italian, French, Spanish) still use both of these categories but employ them in different syntactic contexts. CompSubjInf represents one of the important grammatical aspects underlying the linguistic diversity between European languages.
The project studied a number of representative languages pertaining to the broader linguistic groups outlined above: German in the context of Germanic; French (and to a lesser extent Italian and Spanish) in the context of Romance; and Balkan Slavic (e.g. Bulgarian, Serbian) in the context of Balkan languages. The overall objectives of the project were two-fold: (i) describe the evolving diachronic tendencies in relation to CompSubjInf in languages under study (the descriptive/quantitative aspect of the project); (ii) develop a theoretical analysis that explains the underlying reasons (both linguistic and extra-linguistic) behind the observed developments (the explanatory/qualitative aspect of the project). In addition to advancing linguistic study, the research conducted within the project also has broader social relevance. On the one hand, it expands our knowledge of the cultural and linguistic heritage of European peoples. On the other hand, the project contributes to our understanding of language as a living and evolving entity, thus countering the overly prescriptive and purist linguistic ideologies which pretend that standard languages should be resistant to any change.
The project studied a number of representative languages pertaining to the broader linguistic groups outlined above: German in the context of Germanic; French (and to a lesser extent Italian and Spanish) in the context of Romance; and Balkan Slavic (e.g. Bulgarian, Serbian) in the context of Balkan languages. The overall objectives of the project were two-fold: (i) describe the evolving diachronic tendencies in relation to CompSubjInf in languages under study (the descriptive/quantitative aspect of the project); (ii) develop a theoretical analysis that explains the underlying reasons (both linguistic and extra-linguistic) behind the observed developments (the explanatory/qualitative aspect of the project). In addition to advancing linguistic study, the research conducted within the project also has broader social relevance. On the one hand, it expands our knowledge of the cultural and linguistic heritage of European peoples. On the other hand, the project contributes to our understanding of language as a living and evolving entity, thus countering the overly prescriptive and purist linguistic ideologies which pretend that standard languages should be resistant to any change.
The descriptive/quantitative aspect of the project involved extensive corpus analysis of the primary sources from languages under study, covering a period roughly ranging from ninth to the seventeenth century. The quantitative study in this context mainly relied on online historical corpora pertaining to the relevant languages. The study of Balkan Slavic involved online sources such as the Syntacticus corpus of Medieval Slavic or the Cyrillomethodiana corpus, among others. When it comes to German, the corpus study mostly centered on sources provided by the Deutsch Diachron Digital network, which offers a wide range of historical texts from Old or Middle German (e.g. Referenzkorpus Altdeutsch, Referenzkorpus Mittelhochdeutsch etc.). The quantitative study of Romance relied on online corpora such as the BFM corpus in the case of French (Base de Français Médiéval, containing Old and Middle French texts spanning from 9th-15th centuries), among others. As for the explanatory/qualitative aspect of the project, the work conducted in this context involved extensive reading of the relevant secondary literature (both linguistic and non-linguistic), and developing a novel theoretical framework in light of the observed data.
The main result on the quantitative side of the study were large data sets illustrating the changing historical patterns pertaining to CompSubjInf in languages under study. The obtained data sets were divided by language (e.g. Bulgarian, German, French etc.), by historical period (with sub-periods of about two centuries each) and by the syntactic context (e.g. main clauses, adjunct clauses, and different types of embedded complement clauses). The patterns of Subj vs Inf use across these different independent variables were then quantified and statistically analyzed. The statistical descriptions that were obtained in this context then served as input for the qualitative study of the historical tendencies pertaining to CompSubjInf. The theoretical approach that was subsequently developed resulted in a multi-factorial analysis of the phenomenon under study (described in more detail below), which was disseminated in a number of publications and conference presentations.
The main result on the quantitative side of the study were large data sets illustrating the changing historical patterns pertaining to CompSubjInf in languages under study. The obtained data sets were divided by language (e.g. Bulgarian, German, French etc.), by historical period (with sub-periods of about two centuries each) and by the syntactic context (e.g. main clauses, adjunct clauses, and different types of embedded complement clauses). The patterns of Subj vs Inf use across these different independent variables were then quantified and statistically analyzed. The statistical descriptions that were obtained in this context then served as input for the qualitative study of the historical tendencies pertaining to CompSubjInf. The theoretical approach that was subsequently developed resulted in a multi-factorial analysis of the phenomenon under study (described in more detail below), which was disseminated in a number of publications and conference presentations.
The main contributions of the project to the state of the art stem from the qualitative, theoretical side of the project research, where I was able to bring forth new insights into the principles and mechanisms behind language change. In particular, I showed how broader typological processes may interact with more localized language-contact constraints in order to drive language change in different directions cross-linguistically. CompSubjInf proved to be an especially illuminating research area in this context, because it was shown to be driven both by broader typological forces as well as by local contact-induced constraints.
The general historical trajectory pertaining to CompSubjInf can be described in terms of a gradual retreat of Inf in favor of Subj. This development was observed to varying degrees in both Balkan Slavic and Romance languages. The tendency towards replacement of Inf by Subj was couched within the broader grammatical evolution affecting (at least) the Indo-European linguistic family. The evolution in question can be described in terms of a development of more articulated syntactic structures, which allowed for more efficient language processing thanks to the greater range of specialized functional projections they contained. This broader development favored the use of Subj over Inf, given that the former are more syntactically articulated than the latter. Nevertheless, Inf remained in relatively stable use cross-linguistically in those sentences where the subject of the main clause and the embedded clause is the same (so-called control complements). This was explained by referring to a competing typological principle, namely the tendency towards avoiding redundant linguistic representations. The use of finite Subj morphology in control complements would require that the person and number features associated with the main-clause subject be redundantly realized both on the main and on the embedded verb. Hence the use of Inf (which does not realize any person and number features) is favored in this type of clauses cross-linguistically.
In relation to languages under study, it was shown that the CompSubjInf patterns in Romance were mostly driven by broader typological mechanisms, as these languages largely lost the use of Inf in non-control but kept it in control contexts. Balkan Slavic developments, on the other hand, were partly driven by local language-contact pressures, specifically in those instances where Subj replaced Inf in control complements. These developments were explained as a function of the multilingual socio-cultural setting that characterized the Balkan region through history. In such a context, where speakers would often communicate in non-native languages, the typological constraint against redundancy in language was relaxed, because redundant repetition of certain linguistic information (e.g. the person and number features of the subject in case of Balkan control Subj complements) increased the likelihood that this information would be correctly interpreted by non-native speakers. This is just one illustration of how local pressures may interact with broader typological mechanisms in order to guide linguistic change in different directions.
The general historical trajectory pertaining to CompSubjInf can be described in terms of a gradual retreat of Inf in favor of Subj. This development was observed to varying degrees in both Balkan Slavic and Romance languages. The tendency towards replacement of Inf by Subj was couched within the broader grammatical evolution affecting (at least) the Indo-European linguistic family. The evolution in question can be described in terms of a development of more articulated syntactic structures, which allowed for more efficient language processing thanks to the greater range of specialized functional projections they contained. This broader development favored the use of Subj over Inf, given that the former are more syntactically articulated than the latter. Nevertheless, Inf remained in relatively stable use cross-linguistically in those sentences where the subject of the main clause and the embedded clause is the same (so-called control complements). This was explained by referring to a competing typological principle, namely the tendency towards avoiding redundant linguistic representations. The use of finite Subj morphology in control complements would require that the person and number features associated with the main-clause subject be redundantly realized both on the main and on the embedded verb. Hence the use of Inf (which does not realize any person and number features) is favored in this type of clauses cross-linguistically.
In relation to languages under study, it was shown that the CompSubjInf patterns in Romance were mostly driven by broader typological mechanisms, as these languages largely lost the use of Inf in non-control but kept it in control contexts. Balkan Slavic developments, on the other hand, were partly driven by local language-contact pressures, specifically in those instances where Subj replaced Inf in control complements. These developments were explained as a function of the multilingual socio-cultural setting that characterized the Balkan region through history. In such a context, where speakers would often communicate in non-native languages, the typological constraint against redundancy in language was relaxed, because redundant repetition of certain linguistic information (e.g. the person and number features of the subject in case of Balkan control Subj complements) increased the likelihood that this information would be correctly interpreted by non-native speakers. This is just one illustration of how local pressures may interact with broader typological mechanisms in order to guide linguistic change in different directions.