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What's mine is yours: Stable variation and language change in Ancient Egyptian possessive constructions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2017

Shayna Gardiner
Shayna Gardiner*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
*
shaynagardiner@gmail.com
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Abstract

Variation is described as two or more variants competing for finite resources. In this model, two outcomes are possible: language change or specialization. Specialization can be broken down further: specialization for different functions, and partial specialization – stable variation. In this paper, I analyze the differences between stable variation and language change using the two variables present in Ancient Egyptian possessive constructions. Observing four Egyptian possessive variants, split into two groups with two variants each – clitic possessor variants and full nominal possessor variants – for a total of 2251 tokens, I compare factors affecting variant choice in each possessive group. Results of distributional and multivariate analyses indicate that a) change over time occurs in clitic possession, while stable variation occurs with noun variants; and b) different kinds of factors govern the two sets: the continuous variable phrase complexity affects variant choice in nominal possession, but does not affect the clitic variants.

Résumé

On décrit la variation comme deux ou plusieurs variantes en concurrence pour des ressources finies. Dans ce modèle, deux résultats sont possibles : le changement linguistique ou la spécialisation sémantique. Cette dernière peut également être décomposée : la spécialisation pour différentes fonctions et la spécialisation partielle (ou variation stable). Dans cet article, j'analyse les différences entre la variation stable et le changement linguistique en utilisant les deux variables présentes dans les constructions possessives en égyptien ancien. En observant quatre variantes possessives, divisées en deux groupes de deux variantes chacun – variantes de possesseurs clitiques et variantes de possesseurs nominaux complets – pour un total de 2 251 occurrences, je compare les facteurs affectant le choix de variante dans chaque groupe. Les résultats des analyses distributionnelles et de régression multiple indiquent que a) le changement au fil du temps se produit dans les variantes clitiques, alors que la variation stable se produit avec les variantes nominales ; et b) différents types de facteurs conditionnent les deux ensembles : la complexité de la phrase variable continue affecte le choix de variante dans la possession nominale, mais n'affecte pas les variantes clitiques.

Keywords

possessive constructionslanguage variationsociolinguisticslanguage changeEgyptian languageconstructions possessivesvariation de languesociolinguistiquechangement de languelangue égyptienne
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 62 , Issue 4: Variation at the Crossroads: Advancing theory by integrating methods/La Variation: Faire progresser la théorie par l'intégration des méthodes , December 2017 , pp. 639 - 660
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2017 

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