Background

Historical linguistics studies how languages change or remain similar over time. It investigates the development, evolution, and relationships among languages, focusing on their phonology (sounds), morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure), semantics (meanings), and lexicon (vocabulary). It also examines how and why languages diverge, interact, and sometimes converge through processes such as language contact and borrowing. Historical linguistics aims to classify languages into families, understand the mechanisms and causes of language change, reconstruct proto-languages, and trace the cultural and social history of linguistic communities.

During the school’s two weeks particular focus will be put on the novel Parametric Comparison Method (PCM). The PCM is a theoretical approach in historical linguistics that focuses on the comparison of grammatical parameters rather than traditional vocabulary-based or phonological comparisons. This method derives from the idea that languages can be compared - and a significant historical signal retrieved - through a finite set of syntactic parameters that determine structural variation across languages. PCM is rooted in the framework of Universal Grammar, assuming all human languages share a common set of principles, which allow for variation through “parameters”, discrete, normally binary, settings that determine specific syntactic properties, such as whether null subjects are allowed (e.g. Italian) or not (e.g. English). Instead of comparing word lists (as in the etymological method) and phonological changes (as in phonological reconstruction), PCM identifies and compares syntactic parameters across languages and families (even remote ones) where shared parameter settings may suggest genealogical relationships or contact-induced convergence. 

The method is susceptible to borrowing effects, but, unlike vocabulary and sounds, which can be borrowed across unrelated languages, syntactic parameters are less likely to be directly borrowed. It is applicable to languages with scarce lexical or phonological data but robust syntactic descriptions, and aims to offer insights into deeper relationships among languages by focusing on deep structural features rather than surface-level elements. The PCM has been used to explore both relationships within language families and between distant languages, such as hypothesising connections between language families in macro-comparative studies. For example, in comparing Japanese and Korean, the PCM might focus on shared syntactic features, such as their head-final structures or similar presence/absence of grammatical features, rather than relying on vocabulary. This could help assess whether these similarities reflect genetic relatedness, contact, or just chance typological affinity.

As for all most modern and sophisticated approaches to historical linguistics, the PCM requires substantial quantitative and computational treatment of the data and of the hypotheses of language relatedness. This is an especially stimulating challenge for both linguists and computer scientists interested in an innovative syntactic method of comparison and reconstruction: the particular and largely unexplored formal properties of historical syntax seem to require specific computational algorithms that cannot be borrowed unchanged from those used for phylogenetic inference in biology and lexical historical linguistics.

References

Campbell, Lyle. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, EUP.

Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca (2000). Genes, Peoples and Languages. Penguin Group.

Ceolin Andrea, Cristina Guardiano, Giuseppe Longobardi, Monica A Irimia, Luca Bortolussi and Andrea Sgarro (2021). At the boundaries of syntactic prehistory, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 376 (1824), 20200197.

Crisma, Paola, and Giuseppe Longobardi (eds, 2009). Historical Syntax and Linguistic Theory:. Introduction. OUP.

Guardiano Cristina and Giuseppe Longobardi, (2017). Parameter theory and parametric comparison, in Ian Roberts (ed.) Oxford Handbook of UG, OUP.

Guardiano Cristina, Giuseppe Longobardi, Guido Cordoni and Paola Crisma (2020). Formal syntax as a phylogenetic method, R.D. Janda, B. Joseph, B. Vance (eds) Blackwell's Handbook of Historical Linguistics Volume II, 145-182

Lightfoot, David. How to Set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change.

Longobardi, Giuseppe, and Cristina Guardiano (2009). Evidence for syntax as a signal of historical relatedness, Lingua, 119.

Roberts, Ian, (2007/2022) Diachronic syntax, CUP.

Aims

Acquire the theoretical knowledge and practical skills described in the syllabus;

Collect new data (parameter settings and evidence) on languages represented among the participants;

Produce an archival record of the data and findings co-authored by all contributors.