Dynamic models of paradigm change can elucidate how the simplest of processes may lead to unexpected outcomes, and thereby can reveal new potential explanations for observed linguistic phenomena. Ackerman & Malouf (2015) present a model in which inflectional systems reduce in disorder through the action of an attraction-only dynamic, in which lexemes only ever grow more similar to one another over time. Here we emphasise that: (1) Attraction-only models cannot evolve the structured diversity which characterises true inflectional systems, because they inevitably remove all variation; and (2) Models with both attraction and repulsion enable the emergence of systems that are strikingly reminiscent of morphomic structure such as inflection classes. Thus, just one small ingredient -- change based on dissimilarity -- separates models that tend inexorably to uniformity, and which therefore are implausible for inflectional morphology, from those which evolve stable, morphome-like structure. These models have the potential to alter how we attempt to account for morphological complexity.
翻译:动态的范式变化模型可以说明最简单的过程如何可能导致意想不到的结果,从而揭示观察到的语言现象的新的潜在解释。 Ackerman & Malouf (2015) 提供了一种模式,在这种模式中,通过一种只吸引人的动态动作,内分泌系统会减少混乱,在这种动态动作中,内分泌系统只会随着时间的流逝而变得更加相似。这里我们强调:(1) 唯吸引力的模型无法形成结构上的多样性,这种多样性将真实的反向系统特征化,因为它们不可避免地消除所有变异;(2) 既具有吸引力又具有反作用的模型能够促成出现一种系统,这些系统惊人地重复了感光学结构,例如感光学类。因此,只有一个小的成分 -- -- 基于不同性的变化 -- -- 不同的模型,往往不易与统一性形成,因此对不易感知的形态学来说是不可信的。这些模型有可能改变我们试图如何解释变形复杂性的系统。