Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CompSubjInf (Competition between subjunctive and infinitive in the history of German, Balkan Slavic and Romance languages)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-09-01 al 2023-08-31
The project focuses on the area of language change and evolution (i.e. diachronic linguistics), specifically as it pertains to the use of the subjunctive and infinitive. These two categories are involved in a phenomenon of grammatical competition, which has different manifestations across European languages. In Germanic languages (e.g. German, Swedish, English), subjunctive receded over time while infinitive remained more stable. Balkan languages (e.g. Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian) largely lost their infinitives and replaced them with subjunctives. Romance languages (e.g. Italian, French, Spanish) still use both of these categories but employ them in different syntactic contexts. The competition between subjunctive and infinitive represents one of the important grammatical aspects underlying the linguistic diversity between European languages.
The project studies a number of representative languages pertaining to the broader linguistic groups outlined above: German in the context of Germanic; Italian and French in the context of Romance; and Balkan Slavic (e.g. Bulgarian, Serbian) in the context of Balkan languages. The overall objectives of the project are two-fold: (i) describe the evolving diachronic tendencies in relation to the competition between subjunctives and infinitives 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 studies a number of representative languages pertaining to the broader linguistic groups outlined above: German in the context of Germanic; Italian and French in the context of Romance; and Balkan Slavic (e.g. Bulgarian, Serbian) in the context of Balkan languages. The overall objectives of the project are two-fold: (i) describe the evolving diachronic tendencies in relation to the competition between subjunctives and infinitives 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 research conducted during the outgoing phase of the project mainly focused on Balkan Slavic languages, partly because the host institute (Ohio State University) holds rich collections of historical documents and manuscripts pertaining to these languages. The descriptive/quantitative part of the project involved extensive corpus study of the primary sources pertaining to these languages, covering a period roughly ranging from 10th to the 17th century. The primary literature studied within the project came from two main sources: physical documents and online corpora. The study of physical documents mainly centered on manuscripts that I was able to access at the Hilandar research library of the Ohio State University. I also made extensive use of online corpora, mostly those available thanks to open access. Chief among these were the Helsinki university corpus of old Slavic texts (Corpus Cyrillo Methodianum Helsingiense), Syntacticus corpus of Medieval Slavic developed under an MIT license, and the University of Sofia Cyrillomethodiana corpus, 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 formulating new hypotheses by assessing previous theoretical approaches in light of the observed data.
The main result on the quantitative side of the analysis were large data sets pertaining to the use of subjunctives and infinitives in languages under study. The obtained data sets were divided by language (e.g. Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian), 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 use of subjunctives and infinitives across these different independent variables was 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 the grammatical competition between subjunctives and infinitives. The qualitative and theoretical approach that was subsequently developed resulted in a multi-factorial analysis of the phenomenon under study, briefly described below.
The main result on the quantitative side of the analysis were large data sets pertaining to the use of subjunctives and infinitives in languages under study. The obtained data sets were divided by language (e.g. Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian), 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 use of subjunctives and infinitives across these different independent variables was 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 the grammatical competition between subjunctives and infinitives. The qualitative and theoretical approach that was subsequently developed resulted in a multi-factorial analysis of the phenomenon under study, briefly described below.
The main contributions to the state of the art that were obtained so far chiefly pertain to Balkan Slavic languages, since they were the primary focus of the research during the outgoing phase. The existing literature on the subjunctive-infinitive competition in these languages already proposed several different types of explanations for this phenomenon. Some viewed the loss of infinitive observed in Balkan languages as a result of language contact. Others viewed it as being due to the grammatical influence of the pre-existing historical language of the Balkans that affected the grammar of modern Balkan languages (the so-called “substratum influence”). Other still viewed the Balkan infinitive loss as resulting from phonological processes, in particular the progressive weakening and deletion of infinitive endings across various Balkan languages. The research I conducted within the project led me to the conclusion that no single factor can explain the observed historical developments pertaining to subjunctive-infinitive competition in Balkan languages, so I developed a multi-factorial analysis in order to account for the developments in question.
According to this analysis, the infinitive loss and its replacement with the subjunctive in Balkan Slavic languages was a result of several interrelated factors. Firstly, there were language-contact pressures mainly due to contacts between Balkan Slavic languages and Greek, which had already lost many of the uses of its infinitive in earlier historical stages (as attested by New Testament documents written in Greek). Moreover, the infinitive remnants in Greek were phonologically weakened and lost the infinitive endings they had during the Ancient Greek period. Thus, the contacts between the speakers of Greek and Balkan Slavic resulted, first of all, in the phonological weakening of the infinitives in the latter group of languages as well (firstly the loss of the final –i and then the loss of the final –ti sound). The loss of infinitive endings, in turn, led to homonymy (i.e. same form) between infinitive verbs and certain finite verb forms, which eventually led to the reanalysis of the verb contained in infinitive clauses from a non-finite to a finite verb form. The final development that then paved the way for the full replacement of infinitives by subjunctives was a syntactic reanalysis of the Balkan Slavic subjunctive marker (the mood particle da), which led to its transfer from a high structural position (the CP layer, to put it in technical terms) to a lower structural position. This allowed the subjunctive marker to spread to infinitive clauses which typically contain smaller structures (lacking the high CP layer), eventually leading to the general replacement of infinitives by subjunctives. The syntactic analysis just described is the main innovative contribution of the present project to the state of the art. During the returning phase of the project, a similar multi-factorial approach will be applied to other languages under study as well, i.e. German and Romance languages.
According to this analysis, the infinitive loss and its replacement with the subjunctive in Balkan Slavic languages was a result of several interrelated factors. Firstly, there were language-contact pressures mainly due to contacts between Balkan Slavic languages and Greek, which had already lost many of the uses of its infinitive in earlier historical stages (as attested by New Testament documents written in Greek). Moreover, the infinitive remnants in Greek were phonologically weakened and lost the infinitive endings they had during the Ancient Greek period. Thus, the contacts between the speakers of Greek and Balkan Slavic resulted, first of all, in the phonological weakening of the infinitives in the latter group of languages as well (firstly the loss of the final –i and then the loss of the final –ti sound). The loss of infinitive endings, in turn, led to homonymy (i.e. same form) between infinitive verbs and certain finite verb forms, which eventually led to the reanalysis of the verb contained in infinitive clauses from a non-finite to a finite verb form. The final development that then paved the way for the full replacement of infinitives by subjunctives was a syntactic reanalysis of the Balkan Slavic subjunctive marker (the mood particle da), which led to its transfer from a high structural position (the CP layer, to put it in technical terms) to a lower structural position. This allowed the subjunctive marker to spread to infinitive clauses which typically contain smaller structures (lacking the high CP layer), eventually leading to the general replacement of infinitives by subjunctives. The syntactic analysis just described is the main innovative contribution of the present project to the state of the art. During the returning phase of the project, a similar multi-factorial approach will be applied to other languages under study as well, i.e. German and Romance languages.