Dimensions of Diffusion and Diversity

Janice Fon

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783110608236
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Filología
• Subtopic: Lingüística

Variation is the norm in language. It is the universal trait that has never been embarrassed by counterexamples. As language is a joint product of human cognition and human society, the dimensions underlying language variation could potentially reveal the complexity of the human mind and defines us of what we are as cognitive and social beings, be it Austrians speaking German, or Nepalis speaking Dumi.

This volume includes eight papers highlighting three dimensions underlying language variation. The linguistic dimension explores how language changes across the physical time span and across linguistic breadth. The cognitive dimension examines how the human mind handles experiential frequency and life experiences, and how it copes with suboptimal processing faculties. Finally, the contextual dimension focuses on how language interacts with its ambiance, either in the form of geographical surroundings, or in the form of artistic styles. The uniqueness of this volume lies not only in its wide range of dimensions investigated, but also in its broad spectrum of languages covered. This enables us to form a fuller understanding of how language evolves and interacts with human cognition.

Part I:Language variation from a linguistic perspective

Po-Ya Angela Wang and Shu-Kai Hsieh

1Characteristics of lexical conventionalization in Chinese

Po-Ya Angela Wang, Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Taiwan University, differe94nt@ gmail.com

Shu-Kai Hsieh, Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Taiwan University, shukaihsieh@ntu. edu.tw

Abstract: Language variations and changes have been widely investigated since they are encapsulated phenomena involving many linguistic factors. The notion of conventionalization, which is regarded as the diachronic process subject to normal constraints on language change, can refer to the newly coding of conceptual categories in the synchronic sense, or the process of adopting into the lexicon in the diachronic sense. To better capture the dynamic nature and underlying cognitive mechanism of conventionalization in Chinese, this paper presents the quantitative profile of a set of target lexical items based on large corpus, and provides a cognitive-functional linguistic explanation. The experimental results of linear regression model show that pragmatically world knowledge as well as structurally syntactic compatibility play statistically significant roles respectively in the establishment of words at different temporal stages. In addition, five linguistic variables are identified to distinguish newly diffused words and words having existed for centuries. Third, “number of types co-occurring before target words” is a key factor in predicting latent fluctuation of present diffused words based on the testing result of machine training with the accuracy of 63%. Hence, linguistic factors influencing conventionalization and statistically significant features of conventionalization are identified and well testified with a prediction model.

Keywords: conventionalization, life cycle of words, neologism, internet language, language change, quantitative linguistics, corpus lexicology

1Introduction

Mental lexicon is “the cognitive system that constitutes the capacity for conscious and unconscious lexical activity” (Jarema and Libben 2007). It is dynamic in its continually giving birth of new words and forming new connections, which is largely different from a fixed dictionary, so how to capture this dynamic and reflect the collective mental lexicon in a speech community should be the goal lexicography aims at for further application in language teaching as well as resources for natural language processing.

An adult may possess a vocabulary size with around 50,000 actively used in her/his mental lexicon (Aitchison 2003). From the viewpoint of lexicographers, Barnhart (1978) claimed that there are nearly 500 new words recorded in dictionary every year, while Metcalf (2002) proposed that in English there are 10,000 words coined in each day. Given the dynamic nature of word usage, the life cycle of words remains a mystery. Scant attention has been paid to understand factors contributing to how lexical items are adopted into lexicon from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Linguistically, we propose that frequency-effect takes the lead and entrenchment drives the effects; nevertheless, how frequent should a word’s occurrence be claimed to be entrenched remain a question. Besides, it is even harder to tackle with the issue in Chinese since the notion of wordhood is still in great controversy.

Over the past years, though the motives for emergence of words have been qualitatively discussed in a wealth of works (Chao 1976; Keller 1994; Hudson 1996; Aitchison 2001; Hickey 2003; Love 2006; Halliday 2007; Milroy 2008), and many linguistic insights can be found in the literature of neologisms studies (Fischer 1998; Hsu 1999; Kjellmer 2000; Metcalf 2002), there has been less experimental or empirical evidence in grounding the arguments. On the other hand, while there are some quantitative observations or proposed formula to delineate life stages and predict how a word may possibly survive after being coined (Chang and Ahrens 2008; Wang 2010; Altmann 2011, 2013; Antoinette 2013; Kerremans 2015), their definitions on survival are inappropriate. As we will argue in this study, a lexical item comes into existence once it is coined, the only difference lies in whether it will be passed on to the next generation or not. Meanwhile, even a lexical item is less stabilized in current usage, it still has the potential to revive in the future.

Chang and Ahrens (2008) used normalized frequency within a year to decide whether a once diffused new word is conventionalized in usage or failed to be captured, however, we argue that such one-year normalized frequency cannot properly reflect conventionalization, for it may be the result of temporary burst. Being conventionalized or not should be viewed from more longitudinal temporal information and cross-timing points’ stabilization. Alternatively, the Constant U proposed by Wang (2010) in evaluating textbook words seems to be more appropriate. However, this measure should not only be used in defining whether a word is activated or not, but to observe the stabilizational process of a word. The linguistic factors underlying this surface behavioral constant use has not been delineated in the study of Wang (2010), and should be further explored for the deeper understanding of the mechanism regarding how our mental lexicon cognitively incorporates new words. Moreover, target words perceived in these studies, except Chang and Ahrens (2008), are easily fluctuated nouns. The words included are biased as the sources are either only words from the Internet or occur in textbooks and dictionaries. And, rare studies have evaluated cognitive factors and disparate linguistic aspects which influence a word’s usage.

Overall, based on previous proposals and limitations, the purpose of this paper is set to sketch linguistic characteristics catalyzing lexical conventionalization from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. In order to realize the underlying factors for a lexical item in entering into our mental lexicon, and to be used in real life communication, three types of words from different temporal points (words having existed for more than 50 years; words coined around 50 years ago; and words newly diffused about 10 years back) are included. 18 linguistic features are evaluated to help understand underlying linguistic factors contributing to the process of conventionalization. The generality and temporal information of included target words are carefully controlled based on available resources.

2Literature review

This section reviews related lexical studies and illustrates the findings among them, to sew together these insights for the understanding of factors influencing the fluctuation of lexical items. Given the fact that what we concern is around the occurrences of a lexical item along with temporal fluctuation, how historical linguistics tackles with the diachronic development of lexical items and how lexical semantics investigates the synchronic emergence of new expression are reviewed. Following that, studies paying attention on “life cycle” of lexical items as well as proposed features for words to be “survival” are introduced, whose insights are further utilized to guide the design of our current study.

2.1Qualitative Discussion from Historical linguistics and Lexical Semantics

In order to decipher the birth (and death) of a word, the reason why certain words can survive over decades while some others die so early are all important issues to be paid attention to. A panorama of the life cycle of a word: its birth, in-use, settling-down, death, and re-birth should shed lights on the secrets of words, and the cognition of human. To approach these issues, we cannot just focus on newly coined words, but also have to bring our attention to the words stored in our lexicon over generations. Related diachronic studies on how words sustained and expanded their meanings and functions as well as how words fluctuate are reviewed with the attempt to explore the life journey of lexical units.

Grammaticalization is a well-known topic related to our concern here. Instead of proposing rules, the focus on grammaticalization path gives insights into the emergent properties of language and its changing tendency (Fischer 2000; Jucker 2010). Metaphorical Extension and Invited Inferencing are two main approaches commonly adopted in the study of grammaticalization. They are proposed separately by Heine and Traugott, and are so coined by Evans and Green (2006). De-grammaticalization, lexicalization, and exaptation are some counter-examples of grammaticalization (Lipka 1990; Lehmann 1995 [1982]; Wischer 2002; Evans and Green 2006) De-grammaticalization stands for two different situations. The first refers to prototypical cases of end-stage in grammaticalization, the other involves cases that the changing direction violates the uni-directionality of grammaticalization. Lexicalization is viewed as the way to enrich the lexicon. Lipka (1990) has defined it as “…the phenomenon that a complex lexeme once coined tends to become a single complete lexical unit, a simple lexeme.” It may employ “conversion” as a strategy to use grammatical items as other parts of speech. Lehmann (1995 [1982]) and Wischer (2002) indicate that there is intersection of grammaticalization and lexicalization, for lexical phrases must be first lexicalized (frozen) before they go into grammaticalization. Exaptation refers to the situation that a form is given with a new function. It is widely discussed in studies...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Language variation from a linguistic perspective
• Part II: Language variation from a nonlinguistic perspective
• Index