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Ling 001 Linguistic Typology Linguistics Linguistic Typology Part 1 Review and Introductory Notions Following our look at grammatical structures To this point we have examined linguistic structures at various sizes Sound structure Word Structure Sentence Structure Interpretation and Meaning This investigation, while dealing with different areas, shows common components Properties of the different areas Some common themes Linguistic representations involve abstract structures (i e structures that.
Linguistics: Linguistic Typology Part 1: Review and Introductory Notions Following our look at grammatical structures • To this point we have examined linguistic structures at various sizes: – – – – Sound structure Word Structure Sentence Structure Interpretation and Meaning • This investigation, while dealing with different areas, shows common components Properties of the different areas • Some common themes – Linguistic representations involve abstract structures (i.e structures that we don’t hear or see per se) – E.g the way that speech sounds are organized suggests an analysis in terms of dimensions like place and manner of articulation – In addition, the way that linguistic objects (speech sounds, morphemes, words) function in combination provides evidence for the abstract structures and rules employed by speakers (although of course without their explicit knowledge) Relating this to the central point • Remember in addition that there is a central argument that we began with – Language is not a cultural invention; it is something that the human brain develops along the lines of walking – Language learners are guided in learning the (abstract!) rules of how language is structured by innate linguistic competence – In an abstract sense, all languages are ‘the same’, that is, they accomplish the same things and are all reflections of this innate endowment Further considerations and questions • At the same time, we know that languages differ from one another (i.e when we don’t make the abstraction above) • Question: How we talk about these differences in light of the hypothesis that there is something universal and innate to human language? Plan • Review some facts about languages of the world • Examine different areas in which languages differ • Talk about the nature of such differences Languages: Basic Facts • How many languages are there? According to the Ethnologue database, there were in 2000 a total of 6,809 living languages in the world • Naturally the different languages have distinct geographical distributions Geography • Distribution: Americas: 1013 Africa: 2058 Asia: 2197 Europe: 230 Pacific:1311 Comments • When the numbers of languages are given in such terms, it is to be assumed that the number of speakers varies greatly • E.g Mandarin Chinese is reported to have 874 million speakers, whereas some languages have only a single speaker remaining • In addition, counts are subject to questions of what counts as a (first) language and so on, and are thus not absolute (see below) The Ethnologue Top 10 • Top 10: 10 Language n(million) Mandarin Chinese 874 English 341 Spanish 322-358 Bengali 207 Hindi 181 Portuguese 176 Russian 167 Japanese 125 German 100 Korean 78 Further differences • When it comes to morphology and syntax, we see another way in which languages differ • With morphology: – What is expressed ‘in a word’ differs greatly from language to language – Similarly, whether or not we see discrete pieces, or multiple adjustments to a single piece • With syntax: – how trees are linearized (where the head of the phrase is) – Fixed vs free word order Syntactic differences • In syntactic typology, we see other types of differences; some cases that involve the order of words and phrases: – Whether a language has a fixed word-order or not – What the fixed word-order of the language is in the first place – Whether there have to be subject and object Noun Phrases in the first place English Word Order • One fact that is clear about English is that major constituents occur in a fixed order: – Subject Verb Object (SVO) • Other orders change the meaning; put differently – The cat chased the dog; and – The dog chased the cat Describe different events altogether In English, information about the Subject and the Object requires a fixed syntactic order • Think carefully about e.g – The cat, the dog chased General Patterns • The general pattern- one that accounts for part of the word order facts- is that in English, the heads of phrases precede the complements of the heads • Recall that we have phrases like XP with head X • In English we find [X YP], not YP X • E.g PP: [to [the store]]; VP [eat [an apple]] Another way of putting this • The trees we draw for constituent structures are like mobiles • Linear orders respect these structures: lines cannot cross • V eat VP NP N apples *[[the apples] eat] Ok: [ eat [the apples]] • Later we’ll see languages that have this tree structure, but a different order for the elements Remember • The example of inversion with auxiliaries: – Is [the unicorn that is in the garden] t eating apples? • In order to know which is to move to the front, we have to know the phrase structure The linear order does not tell us • In the way we think about syntax, the mobile is important for movement and other syntactic phenomena, but in the end it has to have a linear order English Phrases • The fact that the head precedes the complement is general in English; this is called the headinitial pattern • In other languages, as we will see later, the reverse pattern is found; these are head-final patterns • There are sporadic examples in English in which the reverse appears to be found as well: Examples with notwithstanding notwithstanding, English is a head-initial language Elsewhere • Some languages are primarily headfinal; e.g Hindi Compare – Rahul had read the book – Rahul-ne kitaab-ko paRh-aa thaa Rahul book read AUX • There’s a kind of “mirror-image” effect here (think trees…) Structures S NP Rahul AuxP Aux had VP V read NP the book This is the English version… Head final S NP Rahul AuxP VP NP the book Aux V read “had” This is the Hindi version Look carefully at what has changed A puzzle • Which “basic” orders are possible? • What about VSO: – Welsh: • Lladdodd y ddraig y dyn killed the dragon the man ‘The dragon killed the man.’ See the next lecture… Free Word Order • Some languages not require major constituents to appear in a fixed order • Such languages are sometimes described as having free word order • In such languages, participants in the event and subject, object etc are identified by other means Examples • One language with free word order is Mapudungun, which is spoken in Chile and Argentina • Here is a basic sentence: INche pefin metawe I see vessel ‘I see the vessel’ Word Orders • In addition to allowing SVO sentences, all of the other possible arrangements are grammatical as well: – INche metawe pefin – Metawe iNche pefin – Metawe pefin iNche – Pefin metawe iNche – Pefin iNche metawe SOV OSV OVS VOS VSO Agreement and Free Word Order • How are the grammatical roles of these noun phrases determined? • Above the verb is given as pefin • This verb actually has a lot of information in it: Pe-fi-n See-Object.Marker-1sS • That is, the verb says that the subject is first person singular, and that there is a third person object • Thus the different word orders can be understood as expressing the same basic proposition ... place and manner of articulation – In addition, the way that linguistic objects (speech sounds, morphemes, words) function in combination provides evidence for the abstract structures and rules... innate linguistic competence – In an abstract sense, all languages are ‘the same’, that is, they accomplish the same things and are all reflections of this innate endowment Further considerations and. .. questions of what counts as a (first) language and so on, and are thus not absolute (see below) The Ethnologue Top 10 • Top 10: 10 Language n(million) Mandarin Chinese 874 English 341 Spanish 322-358