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Macro- and Microevolution of Languages: Exploring Linguistic Divergence with Approaches from Evolutionary Biology

机译:语言的宏观和微观进化:运用进化生物学的方法探索语言差异

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摘要

There are more than 7000 languages in the world, and many of these have emerged through linguistic divergence. While questions related to the drivers of linguistic diversity have been studied before, including studies with quantitative methods, there is no consensus as to which factors drive linguistic divergence, and how. In the thesis, I have studied linguistic divergence with a multidisciplinary approach, applying the framework and quantitative methods of evolutionary biology to language data. With quantitative methods, large datasets may be analyzed objectively, while approaches from evolutionary biology make it possible to revisit old questions (related to, for example, the shape of the phylogeny) with new methods, and adopt novel perspectives to pose novel questions. My chief focus was on the effects exerted on the speakers of a language by environmental and cultural factors. My approach was thus an ecological one, in the sense that I was interested in how the local environment affects humans and whether this human-environment connection plays a possible role in the divergence process. I studied this question in relation to the Uralic language family and to the dialects of Finnish, thus covering two different levels of divergence. However, as the Uralic languages have not previously been studied using quantitative phylogenetic methods, nor have population genetic methods been previously applied to any dialect data, I first evaluated the applicability of these biological methods to language data. I found the biological methodology to be applicable to language data, as my results were rather similar to traditional views as to both the shape of the Uralic phylogeny and the division of Finnish dialects. I also found environmental conditions, or changes in them, to be plausible inducers of linguistic divergence: whether in the first steps in the divergence process, i.e. dialect divergence, or on a large scale with the entire language family. My findings concerning Finnish dialects led me to conclude that the functional connection between linguistic divergence and environmental conditions may arise through human cultural adaptation to varying environmental conditions. This is also one possible explanation on the scale of the Uralic language family as a whole.The results of the thesis bring insights on several different issues in both a local and a global context. First, they shed light on the emergence of the Finnish dialects. If the approach used in the thesis is applied to the dialects of other languages, broader generalizations may be drawn as to the inducers of linguistic divergence. This again brings us closer to understanding the global patterns of linguistic diversity. Secondly, the quantitative phylogeny of the Uralic languages, with estimated times of language divergences, yields another hypothesis as to the shape and age of the language family tree. In addition, the Uralic languages can now be added to the growing list of language families studied with quantitative methods. This will allow broader inferences as to global patterns of language evolution, and more language families can be included in constructing the tree of the world’s languages. Studying history through language, however, is only one way to illuminate the human past. Therefore, thirdly, the findings of the thesis, when combined with studies of other language families, and those for example in genetics and archaeology, bring us again closer to an understanding of human history.
机译:世界上有7000多种语言,其中许多是通过语言差异而出现的。尽管之前已经研究了与语言多样性驱动因素有关的问题,包括采用定量方法进行的研究,但对于哪些因素驱动语言差异以及如何驱动语言差异尚无共识。在本文中,我使用多学科的方法研究了语言分歧,并将进化生物学的框架和定量方法应用于语言数据。使用定量方法,可以客观地分析大型数据集,而进化生物学的方法则可以用新方法重新审视旧问题(例如,与系统发育的形状有关),并采用新观点提出新问题。我的主要重点是环境和文化因素对语言使用者的影响。因此,我的方法是一种生态方法,从某种意义上说,我对当地环境如何影响人类以及这种人与环境的联系是否在发散过程中可能发挥作用感兴趣。我研究了与乌拉尔语族和芬兰方言有关的问题,从而涵盖了两个不同的分歧水平。但是,由于以前没有使用定量系统发育方法研究乌拉尔语,也没有将人口遗传方法应用于任何方言数据,因此,我首先评估了这些生物学方法对语言数据的适用性。我发现生物学方法学适用于语言数据,因为我的研究结果与乌拉尔语系统发育的形态和芬兰方言划分的传统观点十分相似。我还发现环境条件或环境条件的变化是语言差异的合理诱因:无论是在差异过程的第一步,即方言差异,还是在整个语言家族中,都具有较大的规模。我对芬兰方言的发现使我得出结论,语言差异和环境条件之间的功能联系可能是由于人类文化适应各种环境条件而产生的。这也是对乌拉尔语族整体规模的一种可能的解释。论文的结果带来了对本地和全球范围内几个不同问题的见解。首先,他们阐明了芬兰方言的出现。如果本文中使用的方法应用于其他语言的方言,则可以对语言差异的归纳进行更广泛的概括。这再次使我们更加了解语言多样性的全球模式。其次,乌拉尔语语言的定量系统发育以及估计的语言分歧时间,就语言族谱的形状和年龄提出了另一种假设。此外,乌拉尔语现在可以添加到使用定量方法研究的不断增长的语言族列表中。这将允许对语言进化的全球模式进行更广泛的推论,并且在构建世界语言树时可以包含更多的语言家族。但是,通过语言学习历史只是阐明人类过去的一种方式。因此,第三,论文的发现与其他语言家族的研究,例如遗传学和考古学的研究相结合,使我们再次更加了解人类历史。

著录项

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    Honkola Terhi;

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  • 年度 2016
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  • 正文语种 en
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