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
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Determine what is possible and
impossible in language structure
For Example
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Languages appear to have
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/p, b, t, d, k, g/
OR JUST /p, t, k/
BUT NOT /b, d, g/
Word Order…
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SOV
watashi-wa
I (subject)
inu-ga
dog (object) saw
(I saw a dog)
OSV
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(default structure)
watashi-ga
inu-wa
I (object) dog (subject)
(A dog saw me)
VOS
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*mimashita
(saw)
mimashita
mimashita
saw
(marked structure)
inu-ga
watashi-wa
dog (object) I (subject)
Word Order Continued
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What is English’s default word order?
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Can we change to a marked structure?
Why would we want to?
Given what we’ve discussed…
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Is there a universal word order?
Why Do We Care?
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Practical
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(About Universals)
Simplifies language study & description
Theoretical Understanding
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Human mind
Social organization of everyday life
Cautions
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Deep information on limited set
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> 6,000 languages
< 1,000 well researched & documented
Cognitive & social inferences
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Typically based on logic
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(not solid proof)
Language Typology
Classifying languages according to
their structural characteristics
Typology Categories
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Default Word Order
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Phonological Characteristics
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SVO, SOV, etc
Voiced stops or not
Language Groupings
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May be mixed
Should be meaningful
Not related to language families
Semantic Universals
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Basic terms: (blue, dog, man…)
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Morphologically simple
Less specialized in meaning
Not recent additions to the language
Pronouns
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All languages (appear to) have
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1st person pronouns
2nd person pronouns
Phonological Universals
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All languages:
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At least three vowel phonemes
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High front, Low, High back
Never more nasal vowels than non-nasal
Notice: Rules include
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“either… or”
“tend to have…”
“generally…”
Remember /p,t,k/ from slide #2
Syntactic & Morphological
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Word order revisited…
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Tendency for Subject to precede Object
Word order can be manipulated for
rhetorical effect
Standard word order affects
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Possession
Prepositions vs. postpositions
Head noun of relative clauses
Now You Try It
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For a language you know, what is its
word order?
What’s the relationship between:
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Possessor and possessed
Pre/post-position & noun phrase
Relative Clause & head noun
Hedges Revisited
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Absolute Universals
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All languages have at least 3 vowels
Universal Tendencies
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Verb initial languages tend to use
preposition + noun phrase
Possible Origins of Universals
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Monogenetic theory
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Physiological factors
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Phonological: High, Low, Back
Cognitive processing
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All languages from one source
Children’s acquisition patterns
Social issues
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Pronouns
Recommended Exercises
TBA
Enough of each to get the point