we What have covered so far..
Lecture 1. Intentional vs. Nonintentional
Lecture 2. Referential vs. Nonreferential
Lecture 3. Human vs. Non-human
primates
Lecture 4. The role of INFERENCE
in communication
Lecture 5. Properties of the
linguistic code
Today
Lecture 6. Linguistic diversity how different are the worlds
languages?
All human languages share a
number of basic properties:
1. Semanticity
2. Arbitrariness
3. Productivity
4. Discreteness
5. Duality of patterning
But how different are they?
Position 1 - All languages are essentially alike
According to Chomsky, a visiting Martian
scientist would surely conclude that aside from
their mutually unintelligible vocabularies,
Earthlings speak a single language.
Steven Pinker (1994, p. 232) The language instinct.
Position 1I - Languages exhibit radical
differences
languages differ so fundamentally from one
another at every level of description (sound,
grammar, lexicon, meaning) that it is very hard
to nd any single structural property they
share.
Nicholas Evans and Stephen C. Levinson, The myth of language
universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive
science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2009) 32, 429492
Polish
Vietnamese
Japanese
Twi (Spoken in Ghana)
Egyptian Arabic
Ojibwe
We will consider the range of
variation within four categories
1. Sound systems
2. Word meanings
3. Morphology I & 2
4. Word order syntax
Sound systems:
Spoken languages (as opposed to signed ones)
make morphemes/words out of sound units.
The minimal unit that CAN make a meaningful
differences is called a phoneme.
It makes a meaningful difference but is not itself
meaningful
e.g. English pin, bin,
pin, pan,
pin, pit
Sound systems:
The number of phonemes varies from language to
language.
* Most languages have between 20 and 35 phonemes.
* Rotokas (spoken in Papua New Guinea) has only 11.
* !Kung (spoken in Namibia and Angola) has 141.
Sound systems:
Two sounds may be separate phonemes in one
language but variants of the same phoneme in
another (in which case they are called
allophones of the same phoneme)
Sound systems:
We know two sounds are phonemes if they are
found in minimal pairs.
So allophones are NEVER found in minimal
pairs. Rather they are in complementary
distribution.
Sound systems:
What is complementary distribution?
Clark Kent and Superman are like allophones of
the same phoneme - in complementary distribution.
They can never be in the same place at the same time.
Sound systems:
What is complementary distribution?
Clark Kent occurs in the newspaper ofce, where
there is news to report.
Superman occurs where people are in danger, ying
through the sky etc..
Sound systems:
In contrast Batman and Superman are like
separate phonemes
Superman and Batman can be in the same place at the
same time (i.e. where people are in danger etc..)
What is complementary distribution?
Or Peter Parker and Spiderman
Or Spiderman and Wolverine
Sound systems:
An example:
In Vietnamese /t/ and /th/ are separate phonemes. So
we nd minimal pairs such as the following:
thy - corpse
ty - west
thi - to carry, to set free
ti - I, me, my etc.
Sound systems:
The same sounds occur in English but NOT as
separate phonemes. Rather they are
allophones of the same phoneme in
complementary distribution.
[th] occurs at the beginning of stressed syllables
[t] occurs elsewhere
So e.g.
thack, thop,
stack, stop,
thint
stint
Sound systems: Some of the most
unusual sounds in human language
[] retroex ap (Enga, Hausa, Hindi)
[] tenuis bilabial click (#Hoan, Taa)
[] tenuis dental click (Hadza, Zulu)
Word meanings
Variation in word meaning is
pervasive because the meaning of a
word is not reducible to the things/
actions/events it is used to refer to.
Word meanings
Saussure So the value of any given word is determined by
what other words there are in that particular area of the
vocabulary. That is true even of a word like soleil (sun'). No
word has a value that can be identied independently of what
else there is in its vicinity. There are languages, for example, in
which it is impossible to say the equivalent of s'asseoir au soleil
(to sit in the sun').
An example of word meaning
Vietnamese tri
In Vietnamese the word tri means sky in an expression
such as
(1)
Chim ny
trn tri
bird DET LOC on sky
The bird is in the sky.
Or in an expression such as
(4)
tri ma = Its raining.
An example of word meaning
Vietnamese tri
tri may be used in quite different contexts. For instance:
(5)
tr i dp = nice weather
tri nng = hot weather
tri lnh = cold weather
And nally, tri appears in expressions such as
(6)
i tri i! = Oh my God
VOC sky VOC
An example of word meaning
Vietnamese tri
So what does tri mean?
Sky, weather, heaven, god etc.
No exact English equivalent.
Morphology: Basic distinction
Analytic
Agglutinating
Inectional
Polysynthetic
Analytic e.g. Chinese, Thai,
Vietnamese etc.
(1)
Beijing Chinese:
W
mi
jzi
chi
I
buy
orange
eat
I bought some oranges to eat.
(2)
Vietnamese
Hm qua
ti
gp
b n
ti.
Yesterday
1sg
met
friend 1sg
I met my friend yesterday
Analytic e.g. Chinese, Thai,
Vietnamese etc.
Sentences are expressed by the juxtaposition
of unchangeable elements.
Words typically consist of just one morpheme.
No inection, little or no derivational
morphology
Analytic e.g. Chinese, Thai,
Vietnamese etc.
(2)
Vietnamese
Hm qua
ti
gp
b n
ti.
Yesterday
1sg
met
friend 1sg
I met my friend yesterday
Meaning yesterday conveyed by two
distinct morphemes not one compound
- qua, last hm, day
Analytic e.g. Chinese, Thai,
Vietnamese etc.
(2)
Vietnamese
Hm qua
ti
gp
b n
ti.
Yesterday
1sg
met
friend 1sg
I met my friend yesterday
First person singular form ti does not change
between accusative I and genitive my.
Analytic e.g. Chinese, Thai,
Vietnamese etc.
(2)
Vietnamese
Hm qua
ti
gp
b n
ti.
Yesterday
1sg
met
friend 1sg
I met my friend yesterday
Verb gp does not change according
to tense (cf. English meet vs. met).
Analytic e.g. Chinese, Thai,
Vietnamese etc.
(2)
Vietnamese
Hm qua
ti
gp
b n
ti.
Yesterday
1sg
met
friend 1sg
I met my friend yesterday
Each word is a single unchanging morpheme
Agglutinating e.g. Japanese, Korean,
Turkish
(3)
Japanese
Hanako ga
Taroo o
ika-se-ta.
ACC
go-CAUS-PST
NOM
Hanako Taroo made go.
Agglutinating e.g. Japanese, Korean,
Turkish
A single item is modied by the attachment of
numerous formative elements which modify the
fundamental idea of the stem. Each item has a
single meaning.
Inectional e.g. Latin, Russian, Romance etc
Latin:
Am
-o
Love
1stSING.NON PAST.ACTIVE.INDICATIVE
I love you
Inectional e.g. Latin, Russian, Romance etc
Latin line from Virgil (Matthews 1981, p. 255):
Ultima
Cumaei
venit
iam
last(Nom) Cumae(Gen) come(3spast) now
carminis
aetas
song(Gen)
age(Nom)
the last age of the Cumaean song has now arrived
Inectional e.g. Latin, Russian, Romance etc
A sharp distinction is made between formal
elements and the material contents of the
sentence.
Polysynthetic e.g. Mohawk, Kwakiutl,Yupik,
Yimas (PNG)
Inuit:
Takusariartorumagaluarnerp?
Do you think he really intends to go look after it?
-iartor[poq] he goes to
-uma[voq] he intends to
-[g]aluar[poq] he does so but
-ner[poq] do you think he
- INTERROGATIVE, 3rd Person
[ ] enclose deleted elements.
Polysynthetic e.g. Mohawk, Kwakiutl,
Yupik,Yimas (PNG)
Tsimshian:
t-yuk-ligi-lo-d-Ep-dalEt
He began to put it down somewhere inside.
t- - he
-yuk - to begin
-ligi - somewhere
-lo - in
-dEp - down
-dal - to put down
-t - it
Polysynthetic e.g. Mohawk, Kwakiutl,
Yupik,Yimas (PNG)
> Boas writes No clear correlation between the suf6ixed elements of the fundamental stem and the formal elements of that appear in IE languages.
Formal elements (i.e. inections, sufxes etc.)
are indistinguishable from content words.
Polysynthetic languages have many formal
elements (like 500+). All elements are
incorporated into a single word/sentence.
Polysynthesis results in very long words.
Morphology - grammatical categories
Grammatical categories (e.g. Tense, Person,
Aspect, Mood Evidentiality) vary signicantly
across languages.
AND languages vary in terms of which
categories must be expressed in any sentence.
Morphology - grammatical categories
Example - grammatical category of person.
1st, 2nd, 3rd persons are well-known. But we
also nd languages that distinguish 1st person
plural inclusive/exclusive.
Tok Pisin yumi, (incl.), mipela (excl.)
Vietnamese chng ta, (inlc.) chng ti (excl.)
Malagasy - Isika (inlc.), Izahay (excl.)
Morphology - grammatical categories
1st person plural inclusive/exclusive.
Morphology - grammatical categories
1st person plural inclusive/exclusive.
chng ta, (inlc.)
chng ti (excl.)
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
Subject
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
Verb
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V Object
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V O
(42% of the worlds languages)
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V O
(42% of the worlds languages)
Japanese
S
O V
(45% of the worlds languages)
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V O
(42% of the worlds languages)
Japanese
S
O V
(45% of the worlds languages)
Hawaiian
V
S
O
(9% of the worlds languages)
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V O
(42% of the worlds languages)
Japanese
S
O V
(45% of the worlds languages)
Hawaiian
V
S
O
(9% of the worlds languages)
Malagasy
V
O
S
(3% of the worlds languages)
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V O
(42% of the worlds languages)
Japanese
S
O V
(45% of the worlds languages)
Hawaiian
V
S
O
(9% of the worlds languages)
Malagasy
V
O
S
(3% of the worlds languages)
Hixkaryana
O
V
S
(>1% of worlds languages)
Word order syntax
English: John ate the apple
S
V O
(42% of the worlds languages)
Japanese
S
O V
(45% of the worlds languages)
Hawaiian
V
S
O
(9% of the worlds languages)
Malagasy
V
O
S
(3% of the worlds languages)
Hixkaryana
O
V
S
(>1% of worlds languages)
Warao
(>1% of worlds languages)
O
S
V
Word order syntax
Latin, Finnish, Warlpiri and many others have a relatively free
word order *see example from Virgil above.
So which position is right?
Position 1 - All languages
are essentially alike
Position 1I - Languages
exhibit radical differences
According to Chomsky, a
visiting Martian scientist
would surely conclude
that aside from their
mutually unintelligible
vocabularies, Earthlings
speak a single language.
languages differ so
fundamentally from one
another at every level of
description (sound, grammar,
lexicon, meaning) that it is
very hard to nd any single
structural property they
share.
Depends in part on your view of language
Position 1 - All languages
are essentially alike
Position 1I - Languages
exhibit radical differences
According to Chomsky, a
visiting Martian scientist
would surely conclude
that aside from their
mutually unintelligible
vocabularies, Earthlings
speak a single language.
languages differ so
fundamentally from one
another at every level of
description (sound, grammar,
lexicon, meaning) that it is
very hard to nd any single
structural property they
share.
Depends in part on your view of language
Position 1 - All languages
are essentially alike
According to Chomsky, a
visiting Martian scientist
would surely conclude
that aside from their
mutually unintelligible
vocabularies, Earthlings
speak a single language.
The position that languages
are essentially alike rests on a
view of language as primarily
cognitive. So Chomsky and the
generativists are trying to
understand what the mind
must be like in order to
produce language. All human
minds/brains are essentially
alike so therefore so are all
human languages at this level e.g. all languages are abstract
recursive systems etc.
Depends in part on your view of language
The position that languages
are radically different rests on
a view of language as
essentially social. Evans speaks
12 different languages and
Levinson 6 (or more). If you
are primarily interested in the
social conventions that
underlie a particular language
the differences are more
signicant - not the mind that
is important but the languages
themselves.
Position 1I - Languages
exhibit radical differences
languages differ so
fundamentally from one
another at every level of
description (sound, grammar,
lexicon, meaning) that it is
very hard to nd any single
structural property they
share.