Linguistic Assessment Criteria for Explaining Language Change: A Case Study on Syncretism in German Definite Articles

TheGermandefinitearticleparadigm,whichisnotoriousforitscasesyncretism,iswidelyconsidered to be the accidental by-product of diachronic changes. This paper argues instead that the evolution of the paradigm has been motivated by the needs and constraints of language usage. This hypothesis is supported by experiments that compare the current paradigm to its Old High German ancestor (OHG; 900–1100ad) in terms of linguistic assessment criteriasuchascuereliability,processingefficiencyandeaseofarticulation.Suchacomparisonhas beenmadepossibleby“bringingbackalive”theOHGsystemthroughacomputationalreconstructionintheformofaprocessingmodel.Theexperimentsdemonstratethatsyncretismhas madetheNewHighGermansystemmoreefficientforprocessing,pronunciationandperceptionthanitshistoricalpredecessor,withoutharmingthelanguage’sstrengthatdisambiguating utterances.

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