Non-configurationality in diachrony

Non-configurationality is a linguistic property associated with free word order, discontinuous constituents, including NPs, and null anaphora of referential arguments. Quantitative metrics, based both on local networks (syntactic trees and word order within sentences) and on global networks (incorporating the relations within a whole treebank into a shared graph), can reveal correlations among these features. Using treebanks we focus on diachronic varieties of Ancient Greek and Latin, in which non-configurationality tapered off over time, leading to the largely configurational nature of the Romance languages and of Modern Greek. A property of global networks (density of their spectra around zero eigenvalues) measuring the regularity in word order is shown to be strengthened from classical to late varieties. Discontinuous NPs are traced by counting the words creating non-projectivity in dependency trees: these drop dramatically in late varieties. Finally, developments in the use of null referential direct objects are gauged by assessing the percentage of third-person personal pronouns among verb objects. All three features turn out to change over time due to the decay of non-configurationality. Evaluation of the strength of their pairwise correlation shows that null direct objects and discontinuous NPs are deeply intertwined

Linguistics · Natural language processing · Pairwise comparison · Physics · Romance languages · Semantic property · Treebank · Verb · Word order · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence

• Definite referential null objects in Ancient Greek

  Silvia Luraghi•Indogermanische Forschungen•2003

  Añadir item

• Discontinuous Syntax, Hyperbaton in Greek

  A M Devine, Angela Devine et al.•Discontinuous syntax•2000

  Añadir item

• Classical Greek Syntax

  David Goldstein, David M Goldstein•Classical Greek syntax•2016

  Añadir item

• From Case to Adposition

  John Hewson, Vit Bubenik•From case to adposition•2006

  Añadir item

• Old Icelandic

  Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson•NOWELE. North-Western European…•1995

  Añadir item

• Non-configurationality in Australian aboriginal languages

  Open Access•Peter K Austin, Peter Austin et al.•Natural Language and Linguistic…•1996

  Añadir item

• Warlpiri and the grammar of non-configurational languages

  Open Access•Ken Hale•Natural Language and Linguistic…•1983

  Añadir item

• Discontinuous Syntax

  Helma Dik, A M Devine et al.•The Classical World•2001

  Añadir item