Untangling the Evolution of Body-Part Terminology in Pano: Conservative versus Innovative Traits in Body-Part Lexicalization

Authors

Roberto Zariquiey, Pontificia Universidad Católica del PerúFollow
Javier Vera, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Simon J. Greenhill, University of Auckland
Pilar Valenzuela, Chapman UniversityFollow
Russell J. Gray, University of Auckland
Johann-Mattis List, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-9-2022

Abstract

Although language-family specific traits which do not find direct counterparts outside a given language family are usually ignored in quantitative phylogenetic studies, scholars have made ample use of them in qualitative investigations, revealing their potential for identifying language relationships. An example of such a family specific trait are body-part expressions in Pano languages, which are often lexicalized forms, composed of bound roots (also called body-part prefixes in the literature) and non-productive derivative morphemes (called here body-part formatives). We use various statistical methods to demonstrate that whereas body-part roots are generally conservative, body-part formatives exhibit diverse chronologies and are often the result of recent and parallel innovations. In line with this, the phylogenetic structure of body-part roots projects the major branches of the family, while formatives are highly non-tree-like. Beyond its contribution to the phylogenetic analysis of Pano languages, this study provides significative insights into the role of grammatical innovations for language classification, the origin of morphological complexity in the Amazon and the phylogenetic signal of specific grammatical traits in language families.

Comments

This article was originally published in Interface Focus, volume 13, in 2022. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0053

Recommended Citation

Zariquiey R, Vera J, Greenhill SJ, Valenzuela P, Gray RJ, List J-M. 2022 Untangling the evolution of body-part terminology in Pano: conservative versus innovative traits in body-part lexicalization. Interface Focus 13: 20220053. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2022.0053

Peer Reviewed

1

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The authors

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.