Competition (and competing motivations) in language change
In my PhD thesis and several smaller follow-up projects, I look at the emergence and development of linguistic variation, specifically syntactic alternations such as the English dative alternation (They gave us some cake vs They gave some cake to us). I approach the rise of this phenomenon in Middle English with a focus on competition, cooperation, and complementary differentiation, and explore systemic as well cognitive-functional factors involved in this change: in particular, I am interested in the relation between loss of case marking, fixation of constituent order, and prepositional patterns. While I have mainly dealt with the dative alternation as such, I have also worked on the benefactive alternation (They bought us some cake vs They bought some cake for us), the ‘dispossessive’ alternation (They robbed us of cake vs They stole cake from us vs xThey stole us cake) and ditransitive light verb patterns (They gave us a kiss vs They kissed us).
More recently, I have taken a more general approach to competing motivations in language change, such as efficiency versus robustness, relating this specifically to strategies of disambiguation in argument structure (viz. strategies for distinguishing who did what to whom) and potential trade-off scenarios between these. My main focus here is on the role of ambiguity (avoidance), but also the extent of redundancy in argument disambiguation (see e.g. Pijpops & Zehentner 2022).
Prepositions in English argument structure across time and space
Since 2018, I have been working on a large-scale project on prepositional argument structure constructions in the history of English and World Englishes, funded by the SNF at the University of Zurich (PI: Marianne Hundt). Here, we aim to explore (changes in) prepositional structures across time and space in a bottom-up, highly data-driven way. I am mostly concerned with the diachronic part of the project, using the Penn-Helsinki Corpora for Middle English, Early Modern English, and Late Modern (British) English to quantitatively investigate three main issues:
(a) the inventory of prepositional patterns over time, specifically the cline from adjuncts to complements and (frequency) changes therein, as well as challenges in distinguishing between such different constructions in historical corpora,
(b) competition between NP- and PP-patterns, the question of what counts as an alternation in this respect, and which factors influence the choice between NP and PP over time,
(c) variability in preposition usage, particularly potential reductions in preposition types used for specific (more core) functions.
More information on the project can be found at:
Subjectification in semantic change: An evolutionary pragmatics approach
I am part of a collaborative project at the University of Vienna (Nikolaus Ritt & Andreas Baumann) on diachronic semantics and pragmatics. By means of quantitative corpus analysis and evolutionary game theoretic modelling, we revisit common semantic changes typically explained as ‘subjectifications’ from an evolutionary pragmatics perspective, and emphasise the role of (un)cooperativeness and listeners in language use and change.
Wiðerwinnung on wandlunge spræce
On mīnre hēahstan lāre gewrite (PhD) ⁊ on sumum lǣssum æfterweorcum, ic sceawie hū spræclic wrixl cymþ ⁊ weaxeþ, swīþost wordgesetnesslice wrixlunga swylce þā Engliscan gyfan-wrixlunge (Hī sealdon ūs sum cake wiþ Hī sealdon sum cake tō ūs). Ic genēalǣce þǣre āriste þisses on Middelenglisce mid gemynde on wiðerwinnunge, gefēolagscipe, ⁊ tōgēanes-tōscēadunge, ⁊ smēage ǣgðer gesetnesslice ⁊ ongietfull-weorclice intingan on þissum wrixle: swīþost, mē lyst þǣre sibbe betwēonan cāsus-mearcunge forwyrde, word-ordes fæstnunge, ⁊ forsetnesslicum hīwum. Þēah ic swīþost fenge ymbe þā gyfan-wrixlunge sylfe, ic hæbbe eac wrōht ymbe þā notgifan-wrixlunge (Hī bohton ūs sum cake wiþ Hī bohton sum cake for ūs), þā ‘reaflāc’-wrixlunge (Hī reafodon ūs cakes wiþ Hī stælon cake fram ūs wiþ xHī stælon ūs cake), ⁊ þrīfeald-weorda leohtword-hīwas (Hī sealdon ūs ān cyssan wiþ Hī cysston ūs).
Nēar þissum tīdum, ic hæbbe genumen ealra-wīdran genēalǣcunge tō wiðerwinnendum intingum on spræclicum wrixle, swylce nytwierþnes wiþ fæstnes, ⁊ cnytte þis swīþost tō sceādwīsum on worda hlotum (þæt is, wīsan tō tōscēadanne hwā dyde hwæt tō hwām) ⁊ tō mæglicum intingan-wrixlum betwēonan þissum. Mīn hēafodgemynd hēr is on þǣre note twēonunge (⁊ hire forbyge), ac eac on þǣre micelnesse oferflēownesse on sceādwīsnesse worda hlota (geseoh e.g. Pijpops & Zehentner 2022).
Forsetnessa on Engliscre wordgesetnesse þurh tīd ‧ stōw
Siððan MMXVIII, ic wyrce on miclum weorce be forsetnesslicum worda-hlot-getimbrungum on Engliscre spræce gerecednesse ⁊ on Woruld-Engliscum, federed þurh þone SNF æt þǣre Heahscole on Turicum (hēafodlǣdend: Marianne Hundt). Hēr, wē myntaþ tō sceawianne (wandlunga on) forsetnesslicum getimbrungum þurh tīd ⁊ stōwe, on wīsan þe onginneþ æt þǣm lȳtlum ⁊ is swīþe on gegaderungum gegrundwealde. Ic eom swīþost bysgod mid þǣm tīd-wandigendan dǣle þisses weorces, brūcende þāra Penn-Helsinki gegaderunga for Middelenglisce, Ǣrre Nīƿenglisce, ⁊ Lætre Nīƿenglisce (Bryttisce), tō getealcræftlīce smēaganne þrēo hēafod-ymbe-cwidas:
(a) þone forsetnesslicra hīwa hord þurh tīd, swīþost þone hwyrft fram tō-gefēgum tō gefyllendum, ⁊ (gelōmnesse) wandlunga þǣr-on, swā ēac earfoðu on tōscēadanne swelce ungelīce getimbrunga on ealdum gegaderungum,
(b) wiðerwinnunge betwēonan nomenhlot- ⁊ forsetnessehlot-hīwum, þā ācsunge hwæt telþ for wrixl on þissum betst, ⁊ hwelce intingan wealdaþ þone cyre betwēonan nomenhlote ⁊ forsetnessehlote þurh tīd,
(c) wrixlfulnesse on forsetnessa brūcunge, swīþost mæglicre wanunge þāra forsetnessa cynna þe beoð brūcte for sundorlicum (mā hēafodlicum) weorcum.
Māre wīsdōm be þissum weorce mæg man findan æt:
Selfung on andgytwandlunge: wīse þurh forþgangolne bīgspell-cræft
Ic eom dǣl gefēolagan weorces æt þǣre Heahscole on Wienne (Nikolaus Ritt & Andreas Baumann) be tīd-wandigendre andgytcræfte ⁊ bīgspellcræfte. Þurh getealcræftlice gegaderunga-sceawunge ⁊ þurh forþgangolic gamen-þēowe-onhīwunge, wē eft-smēagaþ gewuna andgyt-wrixlunga þe man gewunelice ātēoþ swā ‘selfunga’, of forþgangolre bīgspellcræftlicre sceawunge, ⁊ āhebbaþ þone dǣl (un)gefēolagscipes ⁊ hlystendra on spræce bryce ⁊ wrixle.