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Thanks for reading the Multilingual Books newsletter, your source for foreign language news, information, and product information and specials from Multilingual Books. In this issue:
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Harvard scientists predict the future of the past tense
Mathematicians apply evolutionary models to linguistic standardization
From Eurekalert.org
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Verbs evolve and homogenize at a rate inversely proportional to their prevalence in the English language, according to a formula developed by Harvard University mathematicians who've invoked evolutionary principles to study our language over the past 1,200 years, from "Beowulf" to "Canterbury Tales" to "Harry Potter."
Writing in the journal Nature, Erez Lieberman, Jean-Baptiste Michel, and colleagues in Harvard's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, led by Martin A. Nowak, conceive of linguistic development as an essentially evolutionary scheme: Just as genes and organisms undergo natural selection, words -- specifically, irregular verbs that do not take an "-ed" ending in the past tense -- are subject to powerful pressure to "regularize" as the language develops.
Lieberman, Michel, and colleagues built upon previous study of seven competing rules for verb conjugation in Old English, six of which have gradually faded from use over time. They found that the one surviving rule, which adds an "-ed" suffix to simple past and past participle forms, contributes to the evolutionary decay of irregular English verbs according to a specific mathematical function: It regularizes them at a rate that is inversely proportional to the square root of their usage frequency. In other words, a verb used 100 times less frequently will evolve 10 times as fast.
To develop this formula, the researchers tracked the status of 177 irregular verbs in Old English through linguistic changes in Middle English and then modern English. Of these 177 verbs that were irregular 1,200 years ago, 145 stayed irregular in Middle English and just 98 remain irregular today, following the regularization over the centuries of such verbs as help, laugh, reach, walk, and work.
Lieberman and Michel's group computed the "half-lives" of the surviving irregular verbs to predict how long they will take to regularize. The most common ones, such as "be" and "think," have such long half-lives (38,800 years and 14,400 years, respectively) that they will effectively never become regular. Irregular verbs with lower frequencies of use -- such as "shrive" and "smite," with half-lives of 300 and 700 years, respectively -- are much more likely to succumb to regularization.
Extant irregular verbs represent the vestiges of long-abandoned rules of conjugation; new verbs entering English, such as "google," are universally regular. Although fewer than 3 percent of modern English verbs are irregular, this number includes the 10 most common verbs: be, have, do, go, say, can, will, see, take, and get. Lieberman, Michel, and colleagues expect that some 15 of the 98 modern irregular verbs they studied -- although likely none of these top 10 -- will regularize in the next 500 years.
The group's Nature paper makes a quantitative, astonishingly precise description of something linguists have suspected for a long time: The most frequently used irregular verbs are repeated so often that they are unlikely to ever go extinct. "Irregular verbs are fossils that reveal how linguistic rules, and perhaps social rules, are born and die," Michel says.
See the article in full at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/hu-hsp100807.php
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Speak To Me ESL Video Course Now Available On DVD This bilingual English video course with special versions tailored to speakers of Chinese, German, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese or Vietnamese is one of the most extensive of its kind, including three volumes containing nine 55 minute instructional DVDs, which take the viewer through beginner, intermediate and advanced stages of English acquisition. Speak to Me presents the material in easy to understand segments, and the DVDs allow the students to see and hear spoken English at the same time, which is more effective than learning each separately. Speak to Me is designed specifically for self-instruction, but has been used successfully in small groups and classes. Each set of three DVDs is in English only, and comes with a bilingual workbook printed in English and the speaker's language.Learn more about Speak To Me at our Speak To Me page! Check out our newsletter specials to save $25 on Speak To Me! |  |
January Top Products
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Last month's quiz:
What do the following languages have in common? Bulgarian, Greek, Maltese, English, Finnish - All are official European (EU) languages. The winner is Peter N. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who entered. This month's quiz: Many commonly recognized words in English derive from other languages. Give the language of origin for the following words.
Tattoo The answers and this month's winner will be in our next newsletter. Winners receive their choice of one Talk Now or World Talk language CD-ROM! No purchase necessary to enter. Have a favorite item of language trivia? Send it to contest@multilingualbooks.com. You will receive credit for your contribution if your item is used. E-mail your entry to:
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2008 List of Banished Words
If you're a wordsmith just trying to weather the perfect storm in this post-911 world, the folks at Lake Superior State University would like to have a word with you. These popular words and phrases are among many nominated for "banishment". Archived previous lists are available going back to 1976! An amusing read and worth some thought whether or not you agree with their selections.
Check it out at http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php.
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