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Recycling “junk”

A case for exaptation as a response to breakdown
  • Bettelou Los
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Historical Linguistics 2011
This chapter is in the book Historical Linguistics 2011

Abstract

First language learners are “morphology machines,” but second language learners are not. This phenomenon is at the heart of those cases of exaptation (in the sense of Lass 1990) where a loss in morphology due to language contact (second language acquisition) triggers new interpretations of morphological relics in a new generation of speakers (first language acquisition). Exaptation is, however, not restricted to morphology. This paper presents two case studies, one from phonology to morphology and syntax (the Celtic mutations), and one from syntax to discourse (verb-second in Early Modern English). The paper argues that a central notion in exaptation, and possibly the key fact that distinguishes it from the notion of reanalysis, is breakdown in transmission. Breakdown makes it more challenging for learners to recover the interpretation of a feature. They will often succeed nevertheless by fine-tuning hypotheses until they have a reasonable fit. Exaptation, then, is an accidental by-product of the (first and second language) acquisition toolkit: learners’ hypotheses may occasionally differ spectacularly from their “model”. It is then that we see how powerful the toolkit really is.

Abstract

First language learners are “morphology machines,” but second language learners are not. This phenomenon is at the heart of those cases of exaptation (in the sense of Lass 1990) where a loss in morphology due to language contact (second language acquisition) triggers new interpretations of morphological relics in a new generation of speakers (first language acquisition). Exaptation is, however, not restricted to morphology. This paper presents two case studies, one from phonology to morphology and syntax (the Celtic mutations), and one from syntax to discourse (verb-second in Early Modern English). The paper argues that a central notion in exaptation, and possibly the key fact that distinguishes it from the notion of reanalysis, is breakdown in transmission. Breakdown makes it more challenging for learners to recover the interpretation of a feature. They will often succeed nevertheless by fine-tuning hypotheses until they have a reasonable fit. Exaptation, then, is an accidental by-product of the (first and second language) acquisition toolkit: learners’ hypotheses may occasionally differ spectacularly from their “model”. It is then that we see how powerful the toolkit really is.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgements vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Grammaticalization
  6. The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change 15
  7. On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification 43
  8. A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals 67
  9. Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min 83
  10. Part II. Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction
  11. Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu 101
  12. Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America 115
  13. Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) 129
  14. The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence 153
  15. Part III. Historical development of morphosyntactic features
  16. Analogy as a source of suppletion 175
  17. The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian 199
  18. Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions 227
  19. The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English 243
  20. Recycling “junk” 267
  21. Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian 289
  22. Language index 329
  23. Index of terms 333
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.326.18los

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword and Acknowledgements vii
  4. Editors’ introduction 1
  5. Part I. Grammaticalization
  6. The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change 15
  7. On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification 43
  8. A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals 67
  9. Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min 83
  10. Part II. Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction
  11. Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu 101
  12. Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America 115
  13. Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) 129
  14. The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence 153
  15. Part III. Historical development of morphosyntactic features
  16. Analogy as a source of suppletion 175
  17. The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian 199
  18. Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions 227
  19. The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English 243
  20. Recycling “junk” 267
  21. Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian 289
  22. Language index 329
  23. Index of terms 333
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