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LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS AND LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY

WHAT ARE LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS?

Language universals Def.: The study of language that is concerned with what human languages have in common (Eifring & Theil 2005: 1). Linguistic typology Def.: The study of language which deals with ways in which languages differ from each other [] and with the limitations on the degree of variation found in the languages of the world (ibid.). 2

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WHY STUDY LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS?

A partial rather than a holistic study There are many different linguistic systems: the

study of language universals aims to cross-linguistically explain the languages underlying structure.

Comparative view: divide languages into typologically

distinct classes Generalization (inference): from the partial to the

holistic 3

ANTHROPOLOGICAL V/S TYPOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Not all linguistic singularities of a particular language are typologically relevant! E.g.: Fula (West Africa) has around 82 different

words for cattle: guddiri 'bull without a tail', wudde 'cow without a tail', jaabuye 'cow with a large navel

Herdsmanship is a fundamental element of the Fula

societies anthropological significance

This highly specialised vocabulary hardly affects the languages structure little typological significance

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EXAMPLES OF TYPOLOGICAL STUDIES

Morphosyntactic classification of languages Fundamental relationship

Relative clauses: relativization on subjects

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MORPHOSYNTACTIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES

Isolating/analytic languages Only one morpheme per word (i.e. no bound

morphemes); words are invariant

East and Southeast Asia (Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese), West Africa (Yoruba) and South Africa (!Kung)

Also Rapanui (Easter Island) 6

Chapter 4: Linguistic Typology

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4.2 Morphological typology

Grammatical expression of meaning may happen in a number of different ways, as

exemplified by the various methods of expressing the distinction between singular

and plural in the nouns of different languages:2

1. No expression: Japanese hito 'person', pl. hito

2. Function word: Tagalog bato 'stone', pl. mga bato

3. Affixation: Turkish ev 'house', pl. ev-ler; Swahili m-toto 'child', pl. wa-toto

4. Sound change: English man, pl. men; Arabic rajulun 'man', pl. rija1lun 5. Reduplication: Malay anak 'child', pl. anak-anak

The most important typological distinction is between the types 1-2, where each word

consists of only one morpheme, and types 3-5, where a word often consists of more

than one morpheme.

4.2.1 Analytic vs. synthetic languages

Languages in which a word tends to consist of only one morpheme are called analytic

(or isolating). Highly analytic languages are primarily found in East and Southeast

Asia (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese), as well as West Africa (e.g. Yoruba) and South

Africa (e.g. !Kung [also known as Kung-ekoka or !Xu)]). These languages have no

inflection, and the most extreme ones make limited use of processes of word-

formation.

Languages in which a word tends to consist of more than one morpheme are

called synthetic. English is a mildly synthetic language, while older Indo-European

languages, like Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, are highly synthetic. All of them have

plenty of inflection, derivation and compounding.

Extremely synthetic languages, where words are very complex and sometimes

constitute entire clauses, with extensive use of inflection, derivation and compounding,

are called polysynthetic. Polysynthetic languages are primarily found among Eskimo

and American Indian languages, as well as a few languages in Sibir, Northern

Caucasus and Australia.

Theoretically speaking, languages may locate themselves at any point on the

scale from analytic to polysynthetic:

analytic synthetic polysynthetic

(word = morpheme) (word > morpheme) (word = clause)

In fact, however, no language is purely analytic or purely polysynthetic. Furthermore,

different parts of the grammar may behave in different ways. Japanese, for instance, is

analytic in having no noun inflection, but highly synthetic in having a complex system

of verb inflection.

Consider the contrast between the following two translations of the English

sentence 'If you wait for me, I will go with you':

2 In addition, the Number distinction in the noun may be expressed in the form of nearby verbs or adjectives, cf. English the man goes vs. the men go.

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RAPANUI AN ISOLATING LANGUAGE 1:1-relationship between morphemes and words a taata

PL. man

men i kau koe

PRET swim 2SG

you swam

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(Salamanca Nov. 2013)

MORPHOSYNTACTIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES

Synthetic languages Morpheme-per-word ratio: > 1

Bound morphemes

Agglutinative vs. flective languages 8

Chapter 4: Linguistic Typology

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4.2 Morphological typology

Grammatical expression of meaning may happen in a number of different ways, as

exemplified by the various methods of expressing the distinction between singular

and plural in the nouns of different languages:2

1. No expression: Japanese hito 'person', pl. hito

2. Function word: Tagalog bato 'stone', pl. mga bato

3. Affixation: Turkish ev 'house', pl. ev-ler; Swahili m-toto 'child', pl. wa-toto

4. Sound change: English man, pl. men; Arabic rajulun 'man', pl. rija1lun 5. Reduplication: Malay anak 'child', pl. anak-anak

The most important typological distinction is between the types 1-2, where each word

consists of only one morpheme, and types 3-5, where a word often consists of more

than one morpheme.

4.2.1 Analytic vs. synthetic languages

Languages in which a word tends to consist of only one morpheme are called analytic

(or isolating). Highly analytic languages are primarily found in East and Southeast

Asia (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese), as well as West Africa (e.g. Yoruba) and South

Africa (e.g. !Kung [also known as Kung-ekoka or !Xu)]). These languages have no

inflection, and the most extreme ones make limited use of processes of word-

formation.

Languages in which a word tends to consist of more than one morpheme are

called synthetic. English is a mildly synthetic language, while older Indo-European

languages, like Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, are highly synthetic. All of them have

plenty of inflection, derivation and compounding.

Extremely synthetic languages, where words are very complex and sometimes

constitute entire clauses, with extensive use of inflection, derivation and compounding,

are called polysynthetic. Polysynthetic languages are primarily found among Eskimo

and American Indian languages, as well as a few languages in Sibir, Northern

Caucasus and Australia.

Theoretically speaking, languages may locate themselves at any point on the

scale from analytic to polysynthetic:

analytic synthetic polysynthetic

(word = morpheme) (word > morpheme) (word = clause)

In fact, however, no language is purely analytic or purely polysynthetic. Furthermore,

different parts of the grammar may behave in different ways. Japanese, for instance, is

analytic in having no noun inflection, but highly synthetic in having a complex system

of verb inflection.

Consider the contrast between the following two translations of the English

sentence 'If you wait for me, I will go with you':

2 In addition, the Number distinction in the noun may be expressed in the form of nearby verbs or adjectives, cf. English the man goes vs. the men go.

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AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGES

One-to-one correspondence between meaning and form

Three criteria:

1. Each morpheme carries one meaning only. 2. There is a clear-cut boundary between each

morpheme. 3. Grammatical processes are expressed by affixes

which do not affect the form of the individual morphemes. 9

AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGES

Examples of agglutinative languages:

Turkish Swahili Finnish Basque Mapudungun Etc.

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MAPUDUNGUN AN AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGE

Each morpheme carries one meaning only. rngk - kon - fem - tu - a - y - m - i jump inward imme- there FUT real 2nd SG

diately was occur-

a pre- rence

vious

jump

out-

wards

You will immediately jump inwards returning to the same point.

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(Salamanca Sept. 2013)

FLECTIVE LANGUAGES

Morphemes entail more than one meaning.

Cumulation: e.g. hit|s (3rd person singular, present indicative, active) s-morpheme: encodes person, number, tense, mode,

voice and aspect

Infroflection: grammatical processes may affect the form of other morphemes: man > men; am > was (suppletion)

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MORPHOSYNTACTIC CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES

Polysynthetic languages Extreme complex words which are entire clauses in

other languages.

Extensive use of inflection, derivation and compounding

E.g. Eskimo and Amerindian languages, among others 13

Chapter 4: Linguistic Typology

5

4.2 Morphological typology

Grammatical expression of meaning may happen in a number of different ways, as

exemplified by the various methods of expressing the distinction between singular

and plural in the nouns of different languages:2

1. No expression: Japanese hito 'person', pl. hito

2. Function word: Tagalog bato 'stone', pl. mga bato

3. Affixation: Turkish ev 'house', pl. ev-ler; Swahili m-toto 'child', pl. wa-toto

4. Sound change: English man, pl. men; Arabic rajulun 'man', pl. rija1lun 5. Reduplication: Malay anak 'child', pl. anak-anak

The most important typological distinction is between the types 1-2, where each word

consists of only one morpheme, and types 3-5, where a word often consists of more

than one morpheme.

4.2.1 Analytic vs. synthetic languages

Languages in which a word tends to consist of only one morpheme are called analytic

(or isolating). Highly analytic languages are primarily found in East and Southeast

Asia (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese), as well as West Africa (e.g. Yoruba) and South

Africa (e.g. !Kung [also known as Kung-ekoka or !Xu)]). These languages have no

inflection, and the most extreme ones make limited use of processes of word-

formation.

Languages in which a word tends to consist of more than one morpheme are

called synthetic. English is a mildly synthetic language, while older Indo-European

languages, like Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, are highly synthetic. All of them have

plenty of inflection, derivation and compounding.

Extremely synthetic languages, where words are very complex and sometimes

constitute entire clauses, with extensive use of inflection, derivation and compounding,

are called polysynthetic. Polysynthetic languages are primarily found among Eskimo

and American Indian languages, as well as a few languages in Sibir, Northern

Caucasus and Australia.

Theoretically speaking, languages may locate themselves at any point on the

scale from analytic to polysynthetic:

analytic synthetic polysynthetic

(word = morpheme) (word > morpheme) (word = clause)

In fact, however, no language is purely analytic or purely polysynthetic. Furthermore,

different parts of the grammar may behave in different ways. Japanese, for instance, is

analytic in having no noun inflection, but highly synthetic in having a complex system

of verb inflection.

Consider the contrast between the following two translations of the English

sentence 'If you wait for me, I will go with you':

2 In addition, the Number distinction in the noun may be expressed in the form of nearby verbs or adjectives, cf. English the man goes vs. the men go.

INUKTITUT A POLYSYNTHETIC LANGUAGE

(Eifring & Theil 2005: 6)

If you wait for me, I will go with you.

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Chapter 4: Linguistic Typology

6

(?) If you wait for me, I will go with you' in Chinese and Inuktitut

(?a) Chinese: n de3ng wo3, wo3 jiu4 ge1n n qu4. 2SG wait 1SG 1SG then with 2SG go

(?b) Eskimo:3 Utaqqi-gu-vi- nga, aulla-qati- gi- niaq- pa- git

wait if 2SG 1SG go partner have future assertion 1SG/2SG

The Chinese sentence consists of eight words, each word corresponding to one

morpheme. In Eskimo (more properly called Inuktitut), however, the same sentence

consists of only two words, utaqqiguvinga and aullaqatiginiaqpagit, each

corresponding to a full clause with 4-5 morphemes. These example sentences are

more extreme than what is common. In Chinese, there are in fact many compound

words, as well as words containing derivational affixes. And in Eskimo, a clause often

consists of more than one word. The clearest contrast is between the lack of inflection

in analytic languages like Chinese vs. the widespread use of inflection in Eskimo.

4.2.2 Agglutinative vs. flective languages

Synthetic and polysynthetic languages may be further divided into agglutinative and

flective languages. In the ideal case, an agglutinative language is a synthetic or a

polysynthetic language where there is a one-to-one correspondence between meaning

and form. Consider, for instance, the ablative plural of the Turkish word ev 'house':

ev- ler-den

house PL ABL

The root ev means 'house', the suffix -ler marks the plural and the suffix -den marks

the ablative case.

In an almost ideal case like Turkish, agglutinative languages exhibit all of the

following three properties (while flective languages exhibit the opposite properties):

1. Each morpheme expresses only one meaning element. This is the opposite

of cumulation, where each morpheme expresses more than one meaning

element, such as in modern Greek rfete 'was being written', where the suffix

-ete expresses five different meaning elements: 3rd person, singular, passive

voice, durative and past tense.

2. There is a clear-cut boundary between each morpheme. The opposite is

known as fusion, as in East Norwegian past participle [sva:] 'answered',

where the verb root [sva:r] is combined with the suffix [t], but where [r] + [t]

becomes [] by phonological rule, fusing the two morphemes together.

3. Grammatical processes are expressed through prefixes or suffixes and do

not affect the form of the individual morphemes. This is the opposite of

introflection, as in the English plural men of man, or the Arabic plural rija1lun of rajulun 'man'.

3 See http://web.hku.hk/~althea/inuktitut.html.

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FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS

Can the traditional subject/object model of syntactic analysis be considered as typologically applicable to any language?

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INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

Irrespective of transitivity, we can observe the following pattern in an unmarked statement: *Depending on the transitivity of the verb

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Subject (Direct) Object

Case of the NP nominative accusative

Position of the NP preverbal postverbal

Compulsory/facultative presence

compulsory facultative*

Morphology Person-number congruence in the verb

---

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INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

Moreover, these fundamental relationships are independent of the semantic roles adscribed to the corresponding NP.

Examples:

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Agent El nio corre. El nio come pur.

Experiencer El nio pasa fro.

Source El nio est hediondo.

Goal El nio recibe un regalo.

Patient El nio es retado.

CASE STUDY: BASQUE

Intransitive sentence: SUBJECT?

Gizon - a (-0) kale - a - n d - a - go. Man - DET(-ABS) road - DET- Lok 3ABS - PRES - be

---- Argument ---- +++++++++++ Predicate +++++++++++

-----Adverbial----- ----- Nucleus -----

The man is on the road. 18

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CASE STUDY: BASQUE

The NP of the 1st argument (gizona) is in the absolutive case, one of fifteen morphological cases of the Basque case system.

The absolutive case is unmarked (cero-morpheme).

In English, the man (1st argument) would be the subject and is independent of its respective thematic role.

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CASE STUDY: BASQUE

Transitive sentence: SUBJECT? SUBJECT?/OBJECT?

Emakume-a-k gizon-a-(0) ikusten d-u(-0). Woman-DET(-ERG) man-DET-ABS see (INF) 3ABS-AUX.tr(-3ERG)

----- Argument 1 ----- ++++++++++++++++++ Predicate +++++++++++++++++++

-- Argument 2 -- -------------------- Nucleus ---------------------

The woman is seeing the man. 20

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CASE STUDY: BASQUE

Once again, gizona is present, but it now assumes the function of what we would call direct object, but preserving the absolutive case.

The traditionally denominated subject is embodied by emakumeak and takes the ergative case.

The ergative case can only be used in transitive constructions and usually coincides with the agent.

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CASE STUDY: BASQUE

The verb is not only congruent with the subject of Indo-European languages, but refers back to all arguments of the sentence.

>> The fundamental relationships are thus dependent on the sentences transitivity. >> The traditional subject/object model can therefore not be applied on Basque.

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CASE STUDY: SUMMARY

Equivalences:

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Indo%European,languages, Basque,Nom./Acc.(Type( Ergative(type(((Nominative, Ergative,,Accusative, Absolutive,,Subject, Ergative,,Direct,Object, Absolutive,,Agens, Ergative,,Patiens, Absolutive,

(Stolz 2010: 6)

CASE STUDY: SUMMARY

There is no one-to-one correspondence between Indo-European and Basque structures and categories (in morphology, syntax or semantics).

Indo-European languages: examples of nominative-accusative languages

Basque: example of an ergative language

Ergative languages do not have a real subject/object (Stolz 2010: 6). 24

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TYPOLOGY OF RELATIVE CLAUSES: RELATIVIZATION ON SUBJECTS

Four types: Relative pronoun strategy

Non-reduction strategy

Pronoun-retention strategy

Gap strategy

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RELATIVE PRONOUN STRATEGY

[T]he position relativized is indicated inside the relative clause by means of a clause-initial pronominal element (Comrie & Kuteva 2013).

Threefold function of the relativizer:

Anaphoric function Morphosyntactic function Conjunctive/subordinative function

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RELATIVE PRONOUN STRATEGY

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(Comrie & Kuteva 2013)

NON-REDUCTION STRATEGY

[T]he head noun appears as a full-fledged noun phrase within the relative clause (Comrie & Kuteva 2013).

Correlative clauses

The antecedent appears fully fledged both in the main clause and in the relative clause.

Pirah (Brazil)

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(Comrie & Kuteva 2013)

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NON-REDUCTION STRATEGY

Internally headed relative clauses

The antecedent only appears fully fledged in the relative clause, but is completely absent from the main clause.

Maricopa (Arizona, USA)

29 (Comrie & Kuteva 2013)

NON-REDUCTION STRATEGY

Paratactic relative clause

[T]he relative clause contains the full-fledged head and is the same as an unmarked simple (declarative) clause; the relative and main clauses are only very loosely joined together (Comrie & Kuteva 2013).

Amele (Trans-New Guinea and Papua New Guinea)

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(Comrie & Kuteva 2013)

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PRONOUN-RETENTION STRATEGY

[T]he position relativized is explicitly indicated by means of a resumptive personal pronoun (Comrie & Kuteva 2013).

Babungo (Bantu, Cameroon)

31 (Comrie & Kuteva 2013)

GAP STRATEGY

This strategy involves cases where there is no overt case-marked reference to the head noun within the relative clause (Comrie & Kuteva 2013).

Turkish

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(Comrie & Kuteva 2013)

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CONCLUSION

Typological studies are always partial and punctual, but they often correlate with other typological parameters.

They contribute to understanding the structure of different languages by using a comparative approach.

Typological studies may reveal how the speakers of a specific language structure their thoughts and how they think ( Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis).

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REFERENCES Comrie , Bernard, and Tania Kuteva. 2011. Relativization on subjects. In: Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath (eds.). The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library. Captulo 122. Downloaded from: (accessed 24 May 2014). Eifring, Halvor, and Rolf Theil. 2005. Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages. Oslo: University of Oslo. Chapter 4. Salamanca Gutirrez, Gastn. Sept. 2013. La lengua mapuche. Curso etnolingstico sobre las lenguas vernculas de Chile. Concepcin: University of Concepcin.

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REFERENCES

-----------. Nov. 2013. Aspectos lingsticos del pascuense. Curso etnolingstico sobre las lenguas vernculas de Chile. Concepcin: University of Concepcin. Stolz, Thomas. 2010. Ergativ fr blutigste Anfnger. Bremen: University of Bremen. 1-12. Downloaded from: (accessed 19 May 2014).

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