… and language typology Chapter 7: Universals… … and language typology NOTES: About exercising: it keeps you healthy: physically & mentally… I’ve tried to match the slides to the order of the textbook this time…

Language Universals Determine what is possible and impossible in language structure For Example Languages appear to have /p, b, t, d, k, g/ OR JUST /p, t, k/ BUT NOT /b, d, g/

Word Order… watashi-wa inu-ga mimashita I (subject) dog (object) saw (I saw a dog) (default structure) watashi-ga inu-wa mimashita I (object) dog (subject) saw (A dog saw me) (marked structure) *mimashita inu-ga watashi-wa (saw) dog (object) I (subject) SOV OSV VOS

Word Order Continued What is English’s default word order? Can we change to a marked structure? Why would we want to? Given what we’ve discussed… Is there a universal word order?

Why Do We Care? (About Universals) Practical Simplifies language study & description Theoretical Understanding Human mind Social organization of everyday life

Cautions Deep information on limited set Cognitive & social inferences > 6,000 languages < 1,000 well researched & documented Cognitive & social inferences Typically based on logic (not solid proof)

Classifying languages according to their structural characteristics Language Typology Classifying languages according to their structural characteristics

Typology Categories Default Word Order Phonological Characteristics SVO, SOV, etc Phonological Characteristics Voiced stops or not Language Groupings May be mixed Should be meaningful Not related to language families

Semantic Universals Basic terms: (blue, dog, man…) Pronouns Morphologically simple Less specialized in meaning Not recent additions to the language Pronouns All languages (appear to) have 1st person pronouns 2nd person pronouns

Phonological Universals All languages: At least three vowel phonemes High front, Low, High back Never more nasal vowels than non-nasal Notice: Rules include “either… or” “tend to have…” “generally…” Remember /p,t,k/ from slide #2

Syntactic & Morphological Word order revisited… Tendency for Subject to precede Object Word order can be manipulated for rhetorical effect Standard word order affects Possession Prepositions vs. postpositions Head noun of relative clauses

Now You Try It For a language you know, what is its word order? What’s the relationship between: Possessor and possessed Pre/post-position & noun phrase Relative Clause & head noun

Hedges Revisited Absolute Universals Universal Tendencies All languages have at least 3 vowels Universal Tendencies Verb initial languages tend to use preposition + noun phrase

Possible Origins of Universals Monogenetic theory All languages from one source Physiological factors Phonological: High, Low, Back Cognitive processing Children’s acquisition patterns Social issues Pronouns

Recommended Exercises TBA Enough of each to get the point