Michael Cysouw

Check out my linked manscript: you will find hundreds of examples for many different languages. However: if you know of even more examples, I would be delighted for any tips to more!

Schéma from Maurice Grevisse (1966: 284) for the sentence *Cet homme, digne qu’on le confonde, vit d’intrigues.* ‘This man, worthy of being exposed, lives by intrigue.’

Maurice Grevisse (1895-1980), a Belgian teacher, wrote *Précis de grammaire française* in 1939. Inspired by Henri Bonnard, he added syntactic schemas to the 25th edition of 1959. This version of the book is still in print today as *Le petit Grevisse*. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Dependency-like structure from Senillosa (1817), to be read from bottom left to top right. The sentence consists of five clauses, which are all reformulated as relative clauses, crossing at the head noun they refer to. The original sentence analysed here is "La ciencia y la virtud son los dos bienes que los vayvenes de la fortuna injusta no disipáron nunca."

Felipe Senillosa (1790-1858) in 1817 wrote *Gramática española* in Buenos Aires. About a third of this book consists of graphical syntactic analyses. Most are constituent-like analyses, but a final tour-de-force is an interlocking dependency tree. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Graphical analysis by Wilhelm Wundt of a sentence from Goethe's *Werder*: Als er sich den Vorwurf sehr zu Herzen zu nehmen schien (a⏜b), und immer aufs neue beteuerte (c), daß er gewiß gern mitteile (d), gern für Freunde tätig sei (e), so empfand sie (A⏜B), daß sie sein zartes Gemüt verletzt habe (a1⏜b1), und sie fühlte sich als seine Schuldnerin (A⏜D).

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), professor in Leipzig and co-founder of modern psychology, used graphical syntactic analyses based on binary subdivisions of a *Gesammtvorstellung*. This influenced Bloomfield (who ignored the graphics) and (indirectly) Chomsky #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Graphical analysis of a complex sentence by Polivanov (1873). This graphic represents a sentence from a letter from N.M. Karamzin: [А] Улицы прямы, широки и хорошо вымощены, а [Б] вь срединѣ проведены глубокіе каналы, [а] вь которыхь сь шумомь течеть вода, [а'] уносящая сь собою всю нечистоту иаь города, и [б'] сверхь того весьма полезная ву случаѣ ножара. [А] The streets are straight, wide and well paved, and [Б] in the middle there are deep canals, [а] into which water flows noisily, [а'] carrying away with it all the sewage from the city, and [б'] moreover being very useful in case of a fire.

Lev Ivanovich Polivanov (1838-1899), student of Buslaev and founder of the Polivanovskaya Gymnasium in Moscow, wrote many versions of a *Учебникъ русской грамматики*. In 1873 he adds a graphical analysis of complex sentences using vertical lines. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Hierarchical analysis of the internal structure of the sentence "The Earth rotates around its axis every twenty-four hours" by Gebauer (1890)

Graphical display of the internal structure of a complex sentence from Gebauer (1890). The example sentence is from Daniel Adam z Veleslavína and translates approximately as "Just as we have greater love for our true parents, who begot us, than for others, who chose and adopted us as their own sons: so too the country, in which we were born and raised, is dearer to us than another, to which fortune has turned us."

Jan Gebauer (1838-1907), a major figure in Czech linguistics, started out as a school teacher. He wrote a *Mluvnice česká* (1890) which includes various different graphical approaches to syntax, including hierarchical braces and line diagrams. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

The silver lining is that Microsoft under the helm of Nadella genuinely seems to believe in open source

Sorry to say, but currently it seems like the momentum is with VSCode…

Graphical sentence analysis from Paul (1910) for the sentence: Am Ufer des Ganges verschlang heute ein riesiger Alligator wutschnaubend einen braunen Inder. Again: somebody should write a book about the strange examples used by linguists!

Theodor Paul (not Hermann!) was a teacher's teacher. In 1910 he wrote a German grammar in which he used verb-centric graphical sentence analyses. His graphics are rather clumsily because the lines only go horizontal and/or vertical (see the alt-text). #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Exercise from Müllener (1885) to construct a complex sentence based on the simple clauses to the left and the symbolic representation to the right. The intended results is: Um seine Brust zu stärken, ging er täglich die steilsten Berge hinan; oder er trat an das Ufer des Meeres, wo die Wogen ein großes Gebrause machten, und suchte mit seiner Stimme das Getöse zu übertönen.

Christian Müllener was a Swiss teacher (any tipps about his biography are welcome) wrote *Praktische Übungsschule* (1885) in which he provided exercises to construct sentences based on simple clauses and aa symbolic structure of the complex sentence. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Can you disclose the source 😳?

strongly simplified *Periodenbild* as used by Martin Hattala (1857) for the sentence: Lépe činí ten, kdo těží s mále‑m, stoje věrně na své postati, velký‑t' je, bud' sluhou nebo králem. ('He does better, who makes do with little, standing true to his position, even if he is great, whether he is a servant or a king.')

Martin Hattala (1821-1903), teacher and later professor in Prague, used a simplified *Periodenbild* in his 1857 *Srovnávací mluvnice* for a complex sentence from Ján Kollár. AFAIK, this is the earliest example of graphical grammar in Czech grammars. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Ah, thx! My Czech Language skills are basically non-existing and I am learning more as I proceed. I’m mostly just quoting from the sources up to now, but you are right that is too simplistic 🫣.

"representation in letters" from Kunz (1859) for the Czech Poem "Lépe činí ten, kdo těží s málem, stoje věrně na své postati velkýt' je, bud' sluhou nebo králem."

Karel Kunz was a 19thC teacher in Opava, Czech Republic. I cannot find anything on his biography, suggestions welcome! In 1859 he wrote *Náuka o větách* (lessons about sentences), in which he uses a 'depiction in letters' to analyse complex sentences. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

*Periodenbild* from Horn (1837: 313) for the sentence: [A] Wißt ihr denn, [a] ob der kleine Knabe, [α] der neben euch Blumen zerreißt [β] und mit den Blättern spielt, [a] nicht einst als Kriegsgott in einem stürmischen Welttheile aussteigen [b] und mit den Stürmen spielen werde?

Friedrich Julius Horn (1809-1841) was a teacher in Rastenburg (today Kętrzyn in Poland). In his *Grammatik der neuhochdeutschen Sprache auf historischer und logischer Grundlage* (1837) he used *Periodenbilder* to analyse sentences with multiple subordination, following Lehmann (1833). #linguistics

Johann Willibald Nagl (1856-1912) worked on dialects in Graz and Vienna, but also published *Deutsche Sprachlehre für Mittelschulen* in 1906. He uses a verb-centric approach for his syntactic analysis, which also can include subordinate clauses. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Very early dependency tree from Zikmund (1863) for Czech

Graphical illustration of different interpretations of a complex noun phrase using a kind of constituency analysis from Zikmund (1863)

Václav Zikmund (1816-1873) was a Czech teacher in Prague. His *Skladba jazyka českého* (1863) contains various graphical syntactic analyses, among them a very early dependency tree (left) and an illustration of different possible constituency structures (right).

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Thanks! 🙏

Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa Analysis of word sounds suggests that language originated once, in central and southern Africa.

Implicit ideology? Maybe Atkinson (2011), arguing that southern Africa "could represent ... a single origin for modern languages" doi.org/10.1126/scie...

This paper raised many linguistic eyebrows:
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BTW: the sentence that is analysed with "Schema Б" in the quoted image is the sentence "With a blunt pencil I quickly write a demand to immediately send an armed police squad." Also quite telling for an example from post-revolution Russia in 1928...

I would love to read a book about the socio-political influences on examples given in grammar textbooks 🤔. You know: what does it say about a society that uses sentences like "John hit Mary" to teach their grammar to their children 😫

what about "The chairman gives Mukhin the floor to report on Terentyev’s political offense" in Zeltser & Vvedensky (1925).

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

talking about optimality theory: the history of the manicule (U+261E) is also interesting. It even occurs sometimes in 19thC grammars. However, it probably just ended up in optimality theory through the Dingbats Font

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicule

Exactly, my formulations are still very preliminary. In this case it is technology in the context of education that seems to have given rise to graphical displays of sentence structure.

Graphical display of sentence structures from Peshkovsky's third edition of *Русскій синтаксисъ въ научномъ освѣщеніи* (‘Russian syntax in scientific education’) from 1928. The actual sentences displayed here can be found here: https://cysouw.github.io/graphicalgrammar/#ex5.25

Alexander Matveyevich Peshkovsky (1878-1933) was a prolific author of grammatical textbooks and together with D.N. Ushakov reinvigorated language teaching in Russia after the revolution. He experimented with various graphical syntactic displays. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

can you explain what is shown in the figure (below the VOID...)? I gather that it has something to do with the Japanese "particles", but the intended meaning of this graphical display eludes me (I don't read Japanese unfortunately...)

There is no direct link from the USA to russia here: but the Developments in the USA are a whole separate story. There is clean influence from german into Russia, and it might be the Neuhochdeutsche Grammatik of Hoffmann that inspired him. However, I could not find direct evidence.

Schema of Kryuchkov & Svetlaev (1936, probably originally published in 1925), also cited by Tesnière (1959: 15 fn.1) as an influence on his stemmata. The sentence analysed here is *Классовый враг бешено сопротивляется социалистическому наступлению* which means *The class enemy is furiously resisting the socialist offensive*. By this point in time the Russian revolution has arrived in grammatical textbooks!

Sergey Efimovich Kryuchkov (1897-1969) and Mikhail Vasilyevich Svetlaev (1898-1959) wrote *Грамматика учебник*, which Tesnière (1959:15) cites as an inspiration. By this point in time the Russian revolution has arrived in grammars (check the alt-text)! #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

*Графическимь способомь* 'graphical method' from Smirnovsky (1884)

Pyotr Vladimirovich Smirnovsky (1846—1904) was a teacher in St. Petersburg and wrote the *Учебник русской грамматики* in 1884. It includes a few very early examples of dependency trees. It remains unclear how Smirnovksy came up with this idea. #linguistics

cysouw.github.io/graphicalgra...

Do you know about any online Access to this work?