Overview
This lecture introduces linguistic typology, the study of systematic similarities and differences among the world's languages, focusing on language universals, word order, grammatical roles, and typological databases.
Introduction to Linguistic Typology
- Linguistic typology classifies languages by structural features rather than genetic relationships.
- Early typologies grouped languages into a few types, but modern typology focuses on identifying cross-linguistic phenomena and universals.
- Typology differs from race typologies; linguistic boundaries are more fluid and complex.
Language Universals
- Language universals are features or patterns shared by all or most human languages.
- Absolute universals are properties found in every language (e.g., all languages have vowels).
- Implicational universals state if a language has feature X, it will also have feature Y.
- Examples: All languages distinguish speaker (“I”) and addressee (“you”); all have nouns and verbs.
Key Properties of Human Language
- Vocal-auditory channel: Language is primarily spoken (though sign languages are natural too).
- Rapid fading: Speech signals are temporary.
- Interchangeability: Speakers can both send and receive messages.
- Arbitrariness: No inherent connection between word forms and meanings.
- Discreteness: Language is made of distinct units (sounds, words).
- Displacement: Can refer to things not present.
- Productivity: New messages can be created.
- Cultural transmission: Language is learned, not inherited.
- Reflexivity: Language can refer to itself.
- Ability to convey false or meaningless information.
Word Order Typology
- Basic word orders: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), Verb-Subject-Object (VSO), etc.
- SVO and SOV orders are most common worldwide.
- Languages tend to favor subject-first word orders.
- Word order correlates with other features (e.g., SOV languages often use postpositions, SVO languages use prepositions).
Syntactic Alignment and Grammatical Roles
- Languages differ in marking grammatical roles: nominative-accusative (like Russian), ergative-absolutive, and active-inactive alignments.
- Subject is defined by grammatical priority, but markers vary cross-linguistically.
- Reflexives and verb agreement can help identify subjects and objects in different languages.
Linguistic Databases and Mapping
- WALS (World Atlas of Language Structures) catalogs typological features across languages.
- Maps show geographical patterns of language structures (e.g., word order, case marking).
- Data allows researchers to discover correlations and universals quantitatively.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Typology — The study of systematic classification of languages by structural features.
- Language universals — Properties or patterns common to all (absolute) or many (implicational) languages.
- Word order — The sequence of subject, verb, and object in basic sentences.
- Syntactic alignment — The system a language uses to mark grammatical roles like subject, object, and agent.
- Ergative — A system marking the subject of a transitive verb differently from that of an intransitive.
- Differentiated object marking — Using special markers for certain direct objects (e.g., animate objects in Spanish).
- WALS — World Atlas of Language Structures, a database of cross-linguistic typological data.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Explore the WALS database (wals.info) to view typological maps and language features.
- Review lecture examples on word order and grammatical roles.
- Read textbook chapters on language universals and syntactic typology as assigned.