Transcript PowerPoint Sunusu

TYPOLOGY AND
UNIVERSALS
TYPOLOGY
borrowed from the field of biology and means something like
‘taxonomy’ or ‘classification’
 the study of linguistic systems
 recurring patterns of linguistic systems

UNIVERSALS

typological generalizations based on these recurring patterns
CONTENTS

Definition of typology

Notions of classifications
Pidgins
 creole
 mixed languages
 sign languages
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Definition of universals
unrestricted: absolute and statistical
 implicational universals
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Motivations for language universals
WHAT IS TYPOLOGY?
Linguistic Typology :
 concerns itself with the study of structural differences and
similarities between languages
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the study and interpretation of linguistic or language types

the study and interpretation of types of linguistic systems

involves comparison of linguistic systems between languages
Linguistic Typology:

Synchronic:
A comparison of languages contemporary to each other
Diachronic:
A comparison of languages at various stages of their
historical development
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Grammatical functions the words in a sentence have depend on
how they are ordered with respect to each other.
a. John called Mary.
b. Mary called John.
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Differences in tone is an absolutely essential requirement of
human language.
Mandarin (Sino-Tibetan (Chinese): China)
a. yī ‘cloth’ b. yí ‘to suspect’
c. yĭ ‘chair’ d. yì ‘meaning’
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Copying parts of the word, a process called reduplication, is an
essential requirement for a language to be able to form adverbs
from adjectives.
màn ‘slow’
màn-màn-de ‘slowly’
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The order of the elements in the clause is not rigid.
Modern Greek (Indo-European (Greek): Greece):
a. o skilos kiniyinuse ti yata
the dog chased the cat
b. kiniyinuse o skilos ti yata
chased the dog the cat
c. o skilos ti yata kiniyinuse
the dog the cat chased
d. ti yata o skilos kiniyinuse
the cat the dog chased
e. ti yata kiniyinuse o skilos
the cat chased the dog
f. kiniyinuse ti yata o skilos
chased the cat the dog
the dog chased the cat.
Linguistic typology
 involves cross-linguistics comparisons
Typology:
 map the patterns
 serve as a guide to analysis of languages.
Once there is a clear and precise classification of occurring patterns, a
new pattern may be evaluated with respect to existing ones. In
diachronic [i.e. historical] analysis, where pieces of the puzzle (living
speakers, phonetic studies of them, etc) may often be missing,
typological work can be particularly useful in guiding the analysis in
one direction over another. (Blevins 2007: 110)
CLASSIFICATIONS

It is a central concept in typology
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Primarily based on the elements that make up the structure of
languages
LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATIONS
(RELEVANT FOR TYPOLOGY)
1. Size
The languages of the world vary radically with respect to
how many speakers they have.
2. Social Factors
Age, gender, or level of education of the speakers, or the
formality of the situation the language is used in.
(CROSS-LINGUISTIC SURVEYS)
GENELOGICAL AFFILIATION
1. Location
It is grouped languages by countries they are spoken in.
2. Origin
Languages that descend from a common ancestor are
grouped together into one language family.
PIDGINS, CREOLES AND MIXED LANGUAGES

Pidgins, creoles and other so-called contact languages form a
group of languages that does not easily fit in any genealogical
classification.

Pidgins, creoles and other kinds of contact languages have more
than one parent.
PIDGIN

a language that emerges when groups of people are in close contact and
need to communicate but have no language in common. (slaves, workers.)
CREOLE

typically a pidgin or jargon that has become the native language of a
community.
MIXED LANGUAGE

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A different type of contact language.
Emerged in situations of community bilingualism.
SIGN LANGUAGES
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languages where the communication is achieved by using the hands, upper
body and face to produce signs.
WHAT ARE UNIVERSALS?
Language universals:
refer to properties that hold for all or most known human
languages.
 refer to quantitative statements that are based on cross-linguistic
studies.
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Typological universals are empirically established generalizations that
describe distributional patterns for particular grammatical phenomena
across languages. (These distributional patterns are regarded as
universals to the extent that they are found in all languages or in a
statistically significant number of languages. (Cristofaro 2010:227)
UNRESTRICTED UNIVERSALS: ABSOLUTE AND
STATISTICAL
Absolute universals:
 universals that hold for every single human language, without
exceptions,
 the assumption is that the feature must be present in any and all
languages.
a. All spoken languages have vowels
b. All languages have ways of forming questions
Statistical (or probabilistic) universals
hold for most, but not all, languages;
 the assumption is that the feature is likely to be present in a
language.

In
most languages the singular is the base form and the plural is the overtly
marked form (but not Aari (Afro-Asiatic (South Omotic): Ethiopia), which
has no plural but an overtly marked singulative; (Hayward 1990:444)
Most spoken languages employ a rising intonation for yes-no questions
(but not Hawai‘i Creole English, where yes-no questions have falling
intonation; based on own fieldwork)
IMPLICATIONAL UNIVERSALS
(RESTRICTED, ALSO TYPOLOGICAL)
State that if a language has property A, then it also has
property B, but not necessarily the other way round.
 May also be absolute or statistical.

a. If a language has the phoneme /t/ then it also has the
phoneme /k/ (Pericliev 2008:206)
b. If a language has reflexives for the (first and second person,
it will also have reflexives for the third person (Comrie 1989:19)

Implicational universals can be either one-way or two-way
predictions.
A bidirectional implicational universal:
 is a prediction that works two ways. What this means is that we
can hypothesize that if a language has X, then it also has Y, and
conversely, if it has Y, then it also has X.
A unidirectional implicational universal

is a hypothesis that only holds one way.
If in a language the relative clause precedes the noun, then it is usually has an
object-verb word order while if a language has verb object word order, then
the relative clause usually follows the noun (Dryer 2011)
ON MOTIVATIONS FOR LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS
Language internal explanations are based on
the structural system of the language in question.
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An example of a language internal explanation is the notion of
iconicity, with the principle that the formal expressions in a language
express semantic notions.
Language external explanations are based on factors outside the
structural system of the language.

Examples of external explanations for language universals are the
roles of discourse, processing and economy.
Discourse:
refers to a connected series of utterances by speakers.
Economy:
refers to two processes:
frequently used elements tend to get reduced, or, put
differently, the length of a word correlates with how often it
is used.
elements that are highly predictable tend to get eliminated.
Processing:
refers to the cognitive effort it takes to comprehend
linguistic structures.
CONCLUSION

Typology
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differences and similarities between linguistic systems
patterns of distributions of linguistic structures
Comparison of linguistic types may be either synchronic or diachronic.
Classification is a central concept in linguistic typology.
Due to their socio-historical background, pidgins, creoles and mixed languages are not
easily classified genealogically.
Universals are typological generalizations based on cross-linguistic surveys
Absolute universals hypothesize that a linguistic phenomenon is found (or is lacking) in
all human languages.
Statistical universals hypothesize that a linguistic phenomenon is found (or lacking) in
most human languages.
Implicational universals are hypotheses of the “if X, then Y” kind and can be absolute or
statistical.
Implicational universals can be bidirectional
Or they can be unidirectional.
There may be various motivations for language universals, both internal, such as iconicity,
and external, such as cognitive processing, economy or coherent discourse.