ChatGPT, in its latest iteration as GPT-4, has not yet become the ‘world brain‘ H. G. Wells imagined in the 1930s. It is unable to identify the source of the word ‘mutuomorphomutation’, even though James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939, p. 281) has long been accessible as a machine-readable dataset online. (If you put the word alone into Google search, the answer is not much better: the top ranked results are mainly academic articles about the Wake.)
Yet, when prompted to analyse the word, now-not-so OpenAI’s chatty oracle does a decent job. After identifying it as a ‘creative neologism’ and noting ‘that it is not recognized in standard English dictionaries’, ChatGPT offers the following:
This word seems to be composed of three roots or elements:
Mutuo-: This prefix is not standard in English. It could be a variation or misspelling of “mutu-“, derived from “mutual,” indicating something shared or exchanged between parties. Alternatively, it might be an inventive use intended to evoke the concept of mutuality or exchange.
Morpho-: A common prefix in English derived from Greek, meaning “shape” or “form.” It is used in various scientific and technical terms to denote something related to shape, structure, or formation.
Mutation: A term used in biology and other sciences to describe a change or transformation, often in the genetic material of an organism, but also more broadly to describe any change in form or nature.
Combining these elements, “mutuomorphomutation” could be interpreted as a creative, synthetic term intended to describe a mutual or reciprocal change in form or structure.
This response makes denying some kind of linguistic ‘understanding’ to the latest generation of LLMs seem less and less plausible. What we, as embodied and embedded human users, might still want to do, however, is judge the merits of their responses. (We should also be able to judge the datasets used to train them, but these are being kept secret for questionable reasons.) Prompted to ‘give an example of mutuomorphomutation between English and another language’, ChatGPT began with lexical borrowing, first from Japanese, followed by Mandarin Chinese and isiXhosa:
The Loanword “Anime” in English from Japanese
Original Japanese Term: アニメ (anime) — This is itself a borrowing from the English word “animation.” In Japanese, アニメ (anime) refers broadly to all animated works, regardless of origin.
Adaptation into English: “Anime” — In English, “anime” has been adopted specifically to refer to a style of animation that originates from Japan. The term does not encompass all animation but rather a particular subset characterized by distinctive themes, styles, and cultural references.
Original Chinese Term: 功夫 (Gōngfu)
Meaning in Chinese: The term “功夫” in Mandarin Chinese originally refers to any skill achieved through hard work and practice. It encompasses a broad spectrum of expertise, not limited to martial arts. The concept is deeply rooted in Chinese philosophy, emphasizing the time and effort required to master any discipline.
Adaptation into English: “Kung Fu”
Shift in Meaning: When adapted into English, “kung fu” underwent a significant semantic narrowing. It came to be specifically associated with Chinese martial arts, rather than the broader notion of skill or mastery through diligent practice. This shift reflects the West’s fascination with Chinese martial arts, popularized through cinema and television.
Original Xhosa Term: Ubuntu
Meaning in Xhosa: Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term with a profound philosophical meaning, deeply rooted in the communal cultures of Southern African societies. It embodies the principles of interdependence, humanity, and compassion towards others, often translated as “I am because we are,” or “humanity towards others.” The concept is central to the way social relationships are viewed and conducted in many African communities.
Adaptation into English: “Ubuntu”
Preservation of Meaning: Unlike many loanwords that undergo significant semantic shift when borrowed into another language, “Ubuntu” has been adopted into English with much of its original philosophical and ethical connotations intact. It is used to refer to the African philosophy on communalism and shared humanity, often in discussions of philosophy, social justice, and in the context of technology (e.g., the Ubuntu operating system, which is named after this philosophy to reflect its community-oriented development approach).
Second prompt: Is this process also at work at the syntactic level? Once again, ChatGPT turned first to Japanese.
The Influence of English on Japanese Sentence Structure
Direct Object Marking: In Japanese, the particle “を” (wo) is used to mark the direct object of a verb. However, influenced by the English Subject-Verb-Object order, some Japanese speakers may omit this particle in casual speech, especially when the sentence structure makes the object’s role clear without explicit marking. This reflects a syntactic simplification influenced by English.
Relative Clauses: English relative clauses follow the noun they modify, whereas in traditional Japanese, relative clauses precede the noun. Under English influence, there’s been an increase in post-nominal relative clauses in Japanese, especially in informal contexts and certain written forms influenced by English syntax, showing a syntactic shift.
Loanword Integration and Syntax: The integration of English loanwords into Japanese has sometimes led to shifts in sentence structure to accommodate these words. For example, the use of English verbs as loanwords in Japanese can lead to constructions that more closely mimic English syntax, especially in informal speech or creative texts.
Reciprocal Influence on English
While syntactic influence from Japanese on English is less common due to the structural differences between the languages and the dominant position of English globally, the increasing consumption of Japanese media (anime, manga, video games) has introduced certain Japanese syntactic constructions to English-speaking fans. These influences are mostly seen in borrowed phrases or expressions that retain their original Japanese structure, such as the emphatic particle “ne” being used at the end of English sentences to seek agreement, mirroring its use in Japanese.
Prompted to consider ‘the best language to demonstrate this process in relation to English syntax’, it opted for French:
French Influence on English Syntax
The Norman Conquest brought French into England as the language of the ruling class, law, and administration, setting the stage for extensive borrowing and linguistic influence. While the most visible impact of French on English is lexical, with thousands of French words entering the English language, there are also notable syntactic influences:
Word Order in Adjective-Noun Phrases: French influence can be seen in the placement of adjectives. While English typically places adjectives before nouns (e.g., “green tree”), some expressions reflect a French-style post-nominal adjective placement, especially in set phrases or when conveying a certain formality (e.g., “attorney general,” “court martial”).
Use of Prepositions: French has influenced the use of certain prepositions in English. For instance, the use of “of” to indicate possession (e.g., “the name of the father”) instead of the Germanic genitive case (“the father’s name”) reflects a syntactic structure more aligned with French.
Double Negation: While now considered nonstandard in English, the use of double negation for emphasis (e.g., “I don’t know nothing”) can be traced back to French influence. In Old and Middle English periods, double negation was used for emphasis, a feature present in French syntax, though modern French uses double negation as a standard form of negation.
The Development of Auxiliary Verbs: The use of auxiliary verbs in English for forming compound tenses, passive voice, and interrogative or negative constructions was influenced by French. The expansion of “do” as an auxiliary in questions and negatives in English (e.g., “Do you see?” or “I do not know”) during the Early Modern English period reflects syntactic structures familiar in French.
Two visions of language by Dall-E
Artefacts of Writing 