SOV original word order?

[Everett, Daniel]

Great points, Johanna. 

Dan

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 15, 2011, at 17:06, "Johanna Nichols" <johanna at BERKELEY.EDU> wrote:

> This is grossly irresponsible on PNAS's part.  The authors don't even know
> the basic literature on word order, genealogical classification of
> languages, stability of word order, or mathematics and statistics of type
> changes in populations.  (This is based on reading just the abstract. 
> I'll now read the paper.)  I know that PNAS submissions communicated by an
> NAS member (Gell-Mann must be one) get in without much formality, but do
> they do no peer review whatsoever??
> 
> Johanna Nichols
> 
> 
> Peter Bakker wrote:
>> Dear typologists,
>> 
>> This rather amazing news item:
>> 
>> http://news.yahoo.com/original-human-language-yoda-sounded-201403614.html
>> 
>> appeared to be based on this article in Proceedings of the National
>> Academy of Sciences:
>> 
>> 
>> The origin and evolution of word order
>> 
>> [
>> http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=Murray+Gell-Mann&sortspec=date&submit=Submit
>> ]Murray Gell-Mann
>> [
>> http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=Merritt+Ruhlen&sortspec=date&submit=Submit
>> ]Merritt Ruhlen
>> Contributed by Murray Gell-Mann, August 26, 2011 (sent for review August
>> 19, 2011)
>> Published online before print October 10, 2011,
>> doi:10.1073/pnas.1113716108
>> PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. October 10, 2011
>> 
>> This is the abstract:
>> 
>> Abstract
>> Recent work in comparative linguistics suggests that all, or almost all,
>> attested human languages may derive from a single earlier language. If
>> that is so, then this language�like nearly all extant languages�most
>> likely had a basic ordering of the subject (S), verb (V), and object (O)
>> in a declarative sentence of the type �the man (S) killed (V) the bear
>> (O).� When one compares the distribution of the existing structural types
>> with the putative phylogenetic tree of human languages, four
>> conclusions may be drawn. (i) The word order in the ancestral language was
>> SOV. (ii) Except for cases of diffusion, the direction of syntactic
>> change, when it occurs, has been for the most part SOV > SVO and, beyond
>> that, SVO > VSO/VOS with a subsequent reversion to SVO occurring
>> occasionally. Reversion to SOV occurs only through diffusion. (iii)
>> Diffusion, although important, is not the dominant process in the
>> evolution of word order. (iv) The two extremely rare word orders (OVS and
>> OSV) derive
>> directly from SOV.
>> 
>> 
>> I thought this article could be both interesting and surprising for
>> students of word order typology.
>> 
>> Peter Bakker
>> 
>> 
>> Peter Bakker
>>      email:  linpb at hum.au.dk
>> Department of Linguistics
>> tel. (45) 8942.6553
>> Inst. for Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics
>> Aarhus University
>>   tel. institute: (0045)8942.6562
>> Nordre Ringgade, building 1410                                         fax
>> institute:  (0045)8942.6570
>> DK - 8000 Aarhus C
>> room 340
>> 
>> home page: http://person.au.dk/en/linpb@hum.au.dk
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>