[Lingtyp] The purpose of convergence and divergence?

Sat Jul 1 02:36:30 UTC 2023

Hi Ian,

Rob Pensalfini and I have written about lexical convergence between Mudburra (Ngumpin, Pama-Nyungan) and Jingulu (Mirndi, non-Pama-Nyungan) in northern Australia where the lexicons have converged but there is no effect on the grammar.

We note that Mudburra and Jingulu share 65% of their noun forms and 40% of their verb forms.

Meakins, Felicity, & Pensalfini, Rob. (2020). Holding the mirror up to converted languages: Two grammars, one lexicon. International Journal of Bilingualism. doi:10.1177/1367006920922461
Felicity Meakins , Rob Pensalfini , Caitlin Zipf & Amanda Hamilton-Hollaway (2020) Lend me your verbs: Verb borrowing between Jingulu and Mudburra, Australian Journal of Linguistics, 40:3, 296-318, DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2020.1804830
Felicity
_________________________________________
Professor Felicity Meakins FASSA FAHA
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language<http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/>
Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences Australia<https://socialsciences.org.au/> (FASSA)
Fellow of Australian Academy of Humanities<https://humanities.org.au/> (FAHA)
Editor of Contact Language Library<https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/coll/main>
School of Languages and Cultures | University of Queensland
Brisbane QLD 4072 | AUSTRALIA
RM 434 | Gordon Greenwood Bldg (32) |
' +61 7 3365 3114 | ' +61 411 404 546 |
email f.meakins at uq.edu.au<mailto:f.meakins at uq.edu.au> |
web http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/547

From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Alex Francois <alex.francois.cnrs at gmail.com>
Date: Friday, 30 June 2023 at 9:33 pm
To: Ian Joo <ian_joo at nucba.ac.jp>
Cc: "<LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>" <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] The purpose of convergence and divergence?

Dear Ian,

The question of convergence and divergence in languages is fascinating indeed — all the more so when the same set of languages shows both tendencies at the same time.
I observed this sort of configuration in different areas of Island Melanesia. One was northern Vanuatu (Torres & Banks islands):

  *   François, Alexandre. 2011. Social ecology and language history in the northern Vanuatu linkage: A tale of divergence and convergence<http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#26>. Journal of Historical Linguistics 1 (2). 175-246. [doi:10.1075/jhl.1.2.03fra]
the other one was the island of Vanikoro (Solomon Islands):

  *   François, Alexandre. 2009. The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar<http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#19>. In Bethwyn Evans (ed). Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross. Pacific Linguistics 605. Canberra: Australian National University. 103-126.
Both case studies were dealing with languages that share the same ancestor (Proto-Oceanic), but have gone through intense processes of diversification over centuries, to the point of losing mutual intelligibility even between close neighbours.  That divergence has been quite extreme: e.g. the 17 Torres-Banks languages of north Vanuatu (<10,000 speakers in total) show higher rates of lexical divergence in basic vocabulary than all of Germanic, or all of Slavic, or all of Romance, in a similar time frame  (see F2011:203<https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2011_JHL1-2_Social-ecology_Vanuatu.pdf#page=29>).

But along with those processes of divergence, the same languages evidently undergo a constant process of mutual convergence, as they keep mutually (re)aligning their grammatical and lexical structures.
_________

The motivations I identified for the two processes — at least in that part of the world — were similar to some suggestions you make in your question (and some suggestions by other contributors in this thread).

Convergence arises when multilingual speakers spontaneously align their semantic structures and phraseological strategies, essentially to facilitate cognitive processing and communication success. Cf. F2011 (p.225)<https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2011_JHL1-2_Social-ecology_Vanuatu.pdf#page=29>:
“These processes of structural convergence are ultimately rooted in cognitive pressures in multilingual situations. Structural convergence arises when multilingual speakers in contact give in to a “trend towards word-for-word translatable codes” (Gumperz & Wilson 1971: 165). Achieving cross-linguistic structural isomorphism makes it cognitively easier for speakers to learn and speak other language varieties. Also, by limiting the risk of semantic loss in translation, such parallelism increases the chances for successful communication events.”

That process is well-known in cases of contact between genetically diverse languages:  thus Gumperz & Wilson were describing a famous case of contact-induced alignment between Dravidian and Indo-Aryan varieties in India.  But the same sort of convergence processes can also be shown to be at play among related languages, through isomorphism of grammatical structures, phraseological strategies, patterns of lexification. (Thus in another 2022 paper<https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zfs-2021-2041/html#j_zfs-2021-2041_s_023>, I described a process of "relexification through semantic realignment" which is best explained, I think, by areal pressures towards convergence.)
_________
While this contact-induced convergence affects structures (grammatical structures, semantic structures in the lexicon), divergence is mostly visible in word forms (grammar & lexicon). In Island Melanesia, this took different forms:

  *   divergent phonological systems
(different phonotactic structures and phonological constraints;
vowel inventories ranging from 5 to 14; consonant inventories featuring local innovations like [ʔ] or [ᵑg͡bʷ] or [g͡ʟ]);
  *   divergence due to sound change
- e.g. Hiw [wug͡ʟə], Mwotlap [ʊj], Dorig [ββʊr] 'full' are cognate (< POc *puRa<https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_R-in-Southern-Oceanic_OL50-1_2011-published.pdf#page=47>),
but rendered unrecognisable by regular sound change
  *   divergence due to widespread lexical replacement
(a form replaced by a non-cognate variant).
We thus end up with a situation where language structures are shared across large social networks, whereas linguistic forms differ widely from village to village.

> Same about divergence - if a group that split away from a bigger group changes their lect in a divergent manner, then what benefit does it bring? Does it solidate their group identity? Does it help to identify an in-group member?
The extreme divergence we see cannot merely be explained by geographical isolation, because the languages of north Vanuatu (or those of Vanikoro) have always remained in contact, with a tradition of encouraging linguistic exogamy, and (egalitarian) multilingualism even within a single family.  This constant social contact should have preserved the original linguistic unity, yet what we see, paradoxically, is a strong signal of linguistic divergence.

My understanding is that linguistic divergence here results from a spontaneous process of selection, driven by a social ideology that promotes the strengthening of local identities through contrasts in their linguistic (and cultural) profiles. The processes of divergence serve an emblematic function, that of indexing distinct communities anchored in space.  (While the stratified societies of Europe tend to index social groups through sociolects and stylistic registers, the egalitarian societies of Melanesia invest in the diatopic dimension, i.e. the distribution of lects in geography.)

The selection process itself is, I believe, subconscious; but indirectly, through an "Invisible hand" mechanism (Keller 1989), it serves a purpose of social differentiation of which speakers are fully aware.  This is why the linguistic variants that are selected for emblematic purposes are the ones that are the most salient to speakers' attention:  phonetic shibboleths and phonological patterns;  sound change;  lexical replacement, through the selection of non-cognate synonyms.
The end result of these competing forces is that word forms tend to diverge from place to place, whereas semantic structures are inaccessible enough to speakers' awareness that they are left free to converge across much larger areas.

best,
Alex
________________________________

Alex François
LaTTiCe<http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–<http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>–Sorbonne nouvelle<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
Personal homepage<http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
_________________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ian Joo <ian_joo at nucba.ac.jp<mailto:ian_joo at nucba.ac.jp>>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 at 20:33
Subject: [Lingtyp] The purpose of convergence and divergence?
To: <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG<mailto:LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>>

Dear Typologists,

I would appreciate it if you could point to me the literature discussing the purpose of linguistic convergence and divergence.
Do they happen simply because they happen - or do they serve any purpose? Do they bring any benefit?
For example if my lect changes based on to what my neighbors are speaking, it's an interesting phenomenon, but what good does it do? Does it make me more suitable as a neighbor? Does it make it more easier for me to learn their (dominant) lect? Does it facilitate code-switching?
Same about divergence - if a group that split away from a bigger group changes their lect in a divergent manner, then what benefit does it bring? Does it solidate their group identity? Does it help to identify an in-group member?
These questions have been stuck in my head for quite a long time now and I would be grateful if you could provide me previous insights on such questions.

From the Netherlands,
Ian
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