Phrase structures in competition

[Michael Getty]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear HISTLINGers,
        In connection with work on grammaticalization and language change, I've
begun to look into the problem of gradient change within approaches to
historical linguistics based on X-bar-type phrase structure grammars.
The problem is easy to anticipate: most observable changes in languages
over time language are resolutely gradient, layered, and prolonged,
while change within phrase structure models is generally predicted to be
discrete and, for lack of a better word, catastrophic.
        Recently, though, a new line of approach has emerged in the work of a
number of people currently or formerly at UPenn: Anthony Kroch, Susan
Pintzuk, Beatrice Santorini, and Ann Taylor (citations follow). This
approach tackles the problem language variability and change in terms of
phrase structures in competition. Variation between two or more
grammatical options within one language community is thought of in terms
of a kind of internal diglossia, that is, discrete but co-existing
grammars within the brain of every member of the community in which the
variation is afoot. Over time, innovating grammatical options can
gradually displace older options, eventually becoming categorical.
        On the surface, this notion might strike many as quite plausible, and a
welcome advance in the impasse encountered in phrase-structure-driven
approaches to language change. However, I'm also aware that it raises
ominous issues surrounding learnability, processing constraints, and
similar functional considerations. The idea of phrase structures in
competition has only been around, as far as I've been able to determine,
since 1989, and doesn't seem to have generated much in the way of
critical reactions. So I'll end this long message with two requests: one
for any citations on this subject I might have missed, and the second
for any personal reactions subscribers might have to the issues raised
here. I'll be sure and post a summary of replies, since I anticipate
that this topic will generate an appreciable degree of interest.
 
Michael Getty
German Studies / Stanford University
eeyore at leland.stanford.edu
 
Citations:
-Kroch, Anthony. Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change.
Language Variation and Change. 1 (1989), 199-244
-Kroch, Anthony. (1989)Function and grammar in the history of English:
Periphrastic "do." In Palph Fasold (ed.), Language change and variation.
Amsterdam: Benjamins. 133-172
-Pintzuk, Susuan. Variation and change in Old English clause structure.
Language Variation and Chagne 7 (1995), 229-260.
-Santorini, Beatrice. The rate of phrase structure change in the history
of Yiddish. Language Variation and Change, 5 (1993), 257-283.-Taylor,
Ann. The change from SOV to SVA in Ancient Greek. Language Variation and
Change, 6 (1994), 1-37.