Register in the cross-linguistic diachrony of logical particles (B06*)

• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 416591334

The project investigates and models the interaction between language change and register knowledge: how is change driven, in which direction, and is it propelled from above (by higher registers) or below (by lower registers)? By studying one of the most common words, 'and', project B06 focuses on extinct Indo-European languages which had two such words for conjunction, e.g. Latin que and et. The project already carried out a preliminary study on the history of Latin which shows that the choice of conjunction marker correlates with register. The project will build formal models of the interaction between language change and register on the basis of the Latin data. The project also plans to expand the empirical scope by investigating several other Indo-European families, and their relative historical developments. The broader empirical scope will allow the project to test and adjust its model and contribute to knowing more about how register acts as a driving force of language change.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1412: Register: Language-Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation
• Applicant Institution: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Uli Sauerland; Professor Dr. Richard Waltereit