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compare-typologyandundiversals.pptx
1. OUTLINE
OUTLINE
• Language Universals
-Definition
-Why do language universals
exist
-Importance of language
universals
• Two Major Approaches
Taken to the Linguistic
Universals
-Universal Grammar
-Typological Universals
-Typological Universals vs.
Universal Grammar
• Language Typology
-Language Typology and
Typological Universals
• Classification of Universals
-Implicational vs. Non-
implicational
-Absolute Universals vs.
Tendencies
• Markedness
• The Accessibility Hierarchy
• Types of Typological
Universals
• Online Resources
• Critique
• Typological Universals &
SLA
• Studies focusing on
markedness
-Markedness differential
hypothesis (Eckman, 1977)
-Accessibility Hierarchy
(Keenan & Comrie, 1977)
• Universal generalizations
and Interlanguage
Grammar
• Universals as Constraints
on Interlanguage Grammar
• Universals as Strategies for
Intervention in
Interlanguage Grammar
• Functional Typology
(Aspect Hypothesis)
2.
3. Definition of Language Universals
statements of
what is possible
and impossible
in languages
(Finegan, 2011).
What is
common to all
languages (Mc
Laughlin, 1989)
LANGUAGE
UNIVERSALS
4. Why do language universals exist?
Original Language
Hypothesis
all of the languages in the world derive historically
from the same language
Universals and
Perception
languages are symptoms of how all humans
perceive the world and conduct verbal interactions
Acquisition and
Processing
Explanations
psychological explanations that have no physical
basis.
Social
Explanations
basis on cognition and others reflect the fact that
language is a social tool.
Finegan, 2011
5. Importance of Language Universals
Universals state what is possible in human language and what
is not.
They help us to understand brain and principles that govern
interpersonal communication in all cultures.
They help us to understand what in the human brain and
social organization of everyday life enables people to
communicate through language.
Finegan, 2011
6. Two Major Approaches Taken to the Linguistic
Universals
Noam Chomsky Joseph H. Greenberg
7. LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY VS. UNIVERSAL
GRAMMAR
Universal Grammar Language Typology
Theory driven Data driven
Abstract principles that apply to
all languages
Less abstract
Generally derived by deduction Based on readily observable data
In-depth analysis of the
properties of a language
Examination of the surface
features of a wide range of
languages
(Van Patten & Benati, 2010; McLaughlin,
1989)
8. LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY
Greenberg
and his
followers
analyzing data from a
representative sample of
world’s languages in order to
extract universal patternings
(McLaughlin, 1989, p. 83)
To what extent different languages are
structured according to universal
principles
9. LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY
The study of patterns exhibited in languages worldwide (Gass & Selinker,
2008)
A field of study in which patterns that exist among the languages of the world
are researched and the possible variation found in human languages
described (McLaughlin, 1989)
The specification
of language
universals based
on discerned
patterns
The limits define
the universals
10. LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS AND LANGUAGE
TYPOLOGY
Complementary to each other
What is
common to all
languages
Variation that
exists between
languages
Language
universals
Language
typology
11. LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY
«In developing a typology, researchers examine
actual representations of a particular parameter
to determine whether the various logical
possibilities are found across languages.»
(McLaughlin, 1989, p. 83)
12. 1. VSO with prepositions
2. VSO without prepositions
3. Non-VSO with prepositions
4. Non-VSO without prepositions
13. CLASSIFICATION OF UNIVERSALS
Typological
Universals
Based on the
presence of
property
Non-
implicational
universals
Implicational
universals
Based on
exceptions
Absolute
universals
Tendencies
(McLaughlin, 1989;
Comrie, 1981 as cited in
McLaughlin, 1989)
14. Non-implicational vs. Implicational Universals
Languages have vowels (Mc
Laughlin, 1989, p. 84)
Non-
implicational
Present or absent in natural languages
without reference to any other
properties of the given langauge
15. Non-implicational vs. Implicational Universals
In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost
always follows the governing noun, while in
languages with postpositions it almost always
precedes nouns (Greenberg, 1963, p. 78)
implicational
Relate the presence of one property to
the presence of some other property
16. Absolute Universals vs. Tendencies
Absolute
Universals
without exceptions
Tendencies with exceptions
17. Absolute Universals vs. Tendencies
Absolute universal/
Tendency
Non-implicational/
Implicational
All languages have vowels. Absolute Non-implicational
All languages have nasal
consonants.
Tendency
(some Salishan languages)
Non-implicational
If a language has a VSO as
its basic word order, it has
prepositions.
Absolute Implicational
If a language has SOV basic
word order, it will have
postpositions.
Tendency
(Persian is SOV with
prepositions)
Implicational
McLaughlin, 1989
18. Markedness
An observation of the implicational
relationship between categories (Mc Laughlin,
1989)
A linguistic concept related to how common
or typical a feature is (Van Patten & Benati,
2010)
19. Markedness
A B
A is more
marked than
B
Implicational
Relationships
However, it is not possible to define typological markedness on the basis
of implicational relationships, because there are no two categories, A
and B, that co-exist in the language and have an implicational
relationship. In such cases, markedness is based on frequency
(McLaughlin, 1989).
HOWEVER
20. Markedness
Something that is
more common or
ubiquitous is
considered less
marked or unmarked,
while something less
common or less
natural is considered
marked or more
marked.
Something unmarked
or less marked may
be considered as the
default form of the
feature (Van Patten &
Benati, 2010).
Markedness can be
used to make
crosslinguistic
comparisons (what
happens around the
world with
languages) or what
happens within a
single language
22. Markedness
Subject relative clause: Tom is the man who studied SLA
Object relative clause: SLA is the subject that Tom studied
Indirect object relative clause: Tom is the guy who I gave
the SLA book to
Object of preposition clause: Tom is the guy who I studied
SLA with
Genitive clause: Tom is the guy whose SLA book I borrowed
Object of comparison clause: Tom is the guy who I am taller
than
M
o
r
e
m
a
r
k
e
d
24. The Accessibility Hierarchy
• Keenan and Comrie (1977)
• An example of chain of implicational
universals:
if a language can relativize on position n, then
necessarily it can also relativize on position n-1
McLaughlin, 1989
25. The Accessibility Hierarchy
1. If a language can relativize
on a given preposition on
the Accessibility Hierarchy,
then it must be able to
relativize on all positions
higher on the hierarchy,
because a position lower
on the hierarchy cannot be
more accessible then one
higher.
2. For each position on the
Accessibility Hierarchy,
there is some possible
human language that can
relativize on that position
but on no lower position,
because each position on
the hierarchy is thought to
define a potential cut-off
point.
McLaughlin, 1989
26. The Accessibility Hierarchy
• The Accessibility Hierarchy attempts to
characterize the various types of relative
clause construction among different
languages.
• Researchers have argued that the construction
of a noun phrase for relativization depends on
its grammatical role. Van Patten & Benati, 2010
28. TYPES OF TYPOLOGICAL UNIVERSALS
Word order typology Transivity typology Syntactic typology
Word classes Voice typology Morphological
typology
Case-marking
typology
Grammatical
relations typology
Semantic typology
Person marking Typology of tense,
aspect and modality
systems
Typology of
phonological
systems
Song, 2013
29. Word order typology
In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost always follows the governing
noun, while in languages with postpositions it almost always precedes noun
(Greenberg, 1963)
30. Word order typology
• The leg of the table • My friend’s dog
Possessed
precedes
possessor
Preposition
follow the
noun
IMPLICATIONAL TENDENCY
31. Word order typology
• Languages with dominant verb-subject-object (VSO)
order are always prepositional (Greenberg, 1963)
Implicational absolute universal
32. Online Sources
• World Atlas of Language Structures
http://wals.info/
• The Language Index
https://languageindex.online.uni-
marburg.de/
33. CRITIQUE
• Wide range of languages
• Representative sample of human languages ->
how is one to know that the sample is
sufficiently large and varied to include
examples of all the kinds of structures found
in human languages?
34. • Even if the sample could be shown to be
representative, there remains the problem of
demonstrating the empirical validity of
putative linguistic universals
• The Notion of tendency
35. • It is undeniable that typology has been able to
produce theoretical tools in the form of
implicational generalizations, which provide
hypotheses for the description of learner
languages (Ramat, 2009)
Editor's Notes
Okay lets start with some kind of mental gymnastic with philosophy. Do you know who is this man? Who is plato?
Plato made a distinction between particular and universal. According to him particular is something specific while universal is quality that can be had by more than one specific thing at a time
He found out that many particular things can belong to one and the same species or have one and the same nature, kind, type, essence. If they belong to one and same thing they have an universal quality.
For example, there are many particular trees such as oak, palm, apple, orange etc but in the end they all are trees.
So, what comes to your mind when we say language universals?
Language universals are statements of what is possible and impossible in languages.
the features that are common to all human languages in the world
Acquisition and Processing Explanations: such as word order are necessary because it makes it easier for the child to acquire language.
Social Explanations: For example there are 1st and 2nd person pronouns as default, this is because language is used by two people during face-to-face cognition.
language universals are of an important value in the study of language
There have been a number of different approaches taken to the study of linguistic universals in second language research
Scholars examine how a language behaves and then posit generalizations that can later be checked against other languages
Surveying worlds’ languages and then arriving at a conclusion about what might constitute a universal
Greenberg and his followers begins by
There is a general agreement among linguists that language universals exist but the question is…
Typological universals tries to answer this question but there are limitations of this approach which i will mention at the end of my presentation
Typological universals stems from the study of the patterns exhibited in languages worldwide
The specification of language universals is based on discerned patterns in this variation, the limits of variation defining the universals
Thus, the study of language universals and the study of language typology are complementary to reach other.
The study of universals focuses on what is common to all languages and the study of typology focuses on the variation that exist between languages
The complementarity between the study of language universals and the study of language typology can be illustrated by an example.
Let’s take a look at Greenberg’s universal
There are four logical possibilities
In the figure there are languages that fall into first, third and fourth categories. But there are no languages in the second category. Thus, the typological endevour – aimed at assigning languages to different types – leads to the establishment of a universal.
There have been a number of classification purposed for universals but the most common ones are based on the presence of the property and based on exceptions
No reference is made to any other properties that must or must not be present
Nonimplicational and implicational universals may be absolute universals or tendencies
An important concept related to the implicational relationship is markedness. Markedness is
Whenever the existence of a category A in a language implies the existence of category B, A is considered more marked that B.
However, it is not possible to define typological markedness on the basis of implicational relationships, because there are no two categories, A and B, that co-exist in the language and have an implicational relationship. In such cases, markedness is based on frequency (McLaughlin, 1989).
In the world’s languages, there are relative clauses such as Tom is the man who studies SLA, with who studies SLA as the relative clause. There are various types of relative clauses depending on the relationship of the relative marker to the verb
According to survey of world languages, subject relative clauses are the most common and are the least marked. Object of comparisons are the least common and are the most marked
Recent work on language universals has uncovered a number of areas where one property can be described as more marked than some other property. One that is particularly relevant to research on second language learning is the Accessibility Hierarchy for relativization proposed by Keenan and Comrie
They argued on cross-linguistic grounds that the degree of difficulty of relativizing on a particular noun phrase proceeds from top to bottom along the hierarchy in table
Thus subjects are predicted to be easier to relativize than direct objects and so on down the hierarchy.
There are two sub-parts to the hypothesis
The noun phrase accessibility hierarchy indicates that the easiest relative clause construction is when the relative pronoun is the subject of relative clause. A specific hierarchy is proposed:
These sentences show that the focus of attention in the noun phrase accessibility hierarchy is on the grammatical role of the relative pronoun no matter the role taken by thr head noun in the main clause
In languages with prepositions such as french, russian, italian noun representing what is being possessed preceding the possessor
In languages with postpositions such as turkish, prepositions follow the noun
English is somewhat exceptional in that it allows not only the predicted order but also the unpredicted Word order
