The Evolutionary Dynamics of Negative Existentials in Indo-European

Abstract

Where in earlier work diachronic change is used to explain away exceptions to typologies, linguistic typologists have started to make use of explicit diachronic models as explanations for typological distributions. A topic that lends itself for this approach especially well is that of negation. In this article, we assess the explanatory value of a specific hypothesis, the Negative Existential Cycle (NEC), on the distribution of negative existential strategies (“types”) in 106 Indo-European languages. We use Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to infer posterior distributions of transition rates and parameters, thus applying rational methods to construct and evaluate a set of different models under which the attested typological distribution could have evolved. We find that the frequency of diachronic processes that affect negative existentials outside of the NEC cannot be ignored—the unidirectional NEC alone cannot explain the evolution of negative existential strategies in our sample. We show that non-unidirectional evolutionary models, especially those that allow for different and multiple transitions between strategies, provide better fit. In addition, the phylogenetic modeling is impacted by the expected skewed distribution of negative existential strategies in our sample, pointing out the need for densely sampled and family-based typological research.

Language Phylogenies: Modelling the evolution of language.

“…Blasi et al (2019) use these tools to reveal long-term global trends in the types of sounds languages used possibly caused by the change in our diets after humans transitioned from prehistoric foragers farming societies. A particular research focus has been on how aspects of Indo-European languages have evolved from numeral systems (Calude & Verkerk 2016), noun-phrase recursion (Widmer et al 2017), to negative existentials (Shirtz et al 2021), and effects of grammaticalisation (Goldstein 2022). This approach has also been used to test anthropological questions including identifying lineage specific evolution in post-marital residence patterns (Moravec et al 2018), the link between kinship terms and rules of residence after marriage in Bantu societies (Guillon & Mace 2016), or how human sacrifice and social stratification have co-evolved as a result of social elites using ritualised human sacrifice as a means of maintaining obedience in social underclasses (Watts et al 2016).…”