Universals of Human Language: Word structure

Universals of Human Language: Word structure PDF Author: Joseph Harold Greenberg
Publisher: Universals of Human Language
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 46 papers in this 4-volume collection pro-vide clear and certain evidence that the search for "implicational universals" of human language (that is, for valid empirical generalizations such as "if property Y exists in a language, then property X must exist as well") has established itself, once and for all, as a powerful and dynamic force in modern linguistics. Concomitantly, the collection attests to a broadened use among scholars engaged in universals re-search of a theoretical and methodological strategy-pioneered, elaborated, and most extensively applied by Joseph Greenberg- that contrasts in fundamental respects with procedures favored by generative grammarians. Finally, and most impressive of all, the papers present abundant "results," a profusion of concrete findings that should persuade even the most hardened skeptics that implicational principles have a great deal to tell about what human language is and how it got to be that way. -- from http://www.jstor.org (May 21, 2014).

Universals of Human Language: Word structure

Universals of Human Language: Word structure PDF Author: Joseph Harold Greenberg
Publisher: Universals of Human Language
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 46 papers in this 4-volume collection pro-vide clear and certain evidence that the search for "implicational universals" of human language (that is, for valid empirical generalizations such as "if property Y exists in a language, then property X must exist as well") has established itself, once and for all, as a powerful and dynamic force in modern linguistics. Concomitantly, the collection attests to a broadened use among scholars engaged in universals re-search of a theoretical and methodological strategy-pioneered, elaborated, and most extensively applied by Joseph Greenberg- that contrasts in fundamental respects with procedures favored by generative grammarians. Finally, and most impressive of all, the papers present abundant "results," a profusion of concrete findings that should persuade even the most hardened skeptics that implicational principles have a great deal to tell about what human language is and how it got to be that way. -- from http://www.jstor.org (May 21, 2014).

Language Universals and Linguistic Typology

Language Universals and Linguistic Typology PDF Author: Bernard Comrie
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226114330
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Get Book Here

Book Description
Here, Comrie (linguistics, U. of Southern Cal.) is particularly concerned with syntactico-semantic universals, devoting chapters to word order, case marking, relative clauses, and causative constructions. This second edition takes full account of new research into generative grammatical theory. Acidic paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Language Universals

Language Universals PDF Author: Morten H. Christiansen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190294116
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Languages differ from one another in bewildering and seemingly arbitrary ways. For example, in English, the verb precedes the direct object ('understand the proof'), but in Japanese, the direct object comes first. In some languages, such as Mohawk, it is not even possible to establish a basic word order. Nonetheless, languages do share certain regularities in how they are structured and used. The exact nature and extent of these "language universals" has been the focus of much research and is one of the central explanatory goals in the language sciences. During the past 50 years, there has been tremendous progress, a few major conceptual revolutions, and even the emergence of entirely new fields. The wealth of findings and theories offered by the various language-science disciplines has made it more important than ever to work toward an integrated understanding of the nature of human language universals. This book is the first to examine language universals from a cross-disciplinary perspective. It provides new insights into long standing questions such as: What exactly defines the human capacity for language? Are there universal properties of human languages and, if so, what are they? Can all language universals be explained in the same way, or do some universals require different kinds of explanations from others? Language Universals is unique in starting with the assumption that the best way to approach these and related questions is through a dialogue between a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, computer science and biology.

Word Order Universals

Word Order Universals PDF Author: John A Hawkins
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483296601
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 365

Get Book Here

Book Description
Word Order Universals

Sign Language and Linguistic Universals

Sign Language and Linguistic Universals PDF Author: Wendy Sandler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521483957
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 580

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sign languages are of great interest to linguists, because while they are the product of the same brain, their physical transmission differs greatly from that of spoken languages. In this pioneering and original study, Wendy Sandler and Diane Lillo-Martin compare sign languages with spoken languages, in order to seek the universal properties they share. Drawing on general linguistic theory, they describe and analyze sign language structure, showing linguistic universals in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of sign language, while also revealing non-universal aspects of its structure that must be attributed to its physical transmission system. No prior background in sign language linguistics is assumed, and numerous pictures are provided to make descriptions of signs and facial expressions accessible to readers. Engaging and informative, Sign Language and Linguistic Universals will be invaluable to linguists, psychologists, and all those interested in sign languages, linguistic theory and the universal properties of human languages.

Language Typology and Language Universals 2.Teilband

Language Typology and Language Universals 2.Teilband PDF Author: Martin Haspelmath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110194260
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1013

Get Book Here

Book Description
This handbook provides a comprehensive and thorough survey of our current insights into the diversity and unity found across the 6000 languages of this planet. The 125 articles include inter alia chapters on the patterns and limits of variation manifested by analogous structures, constructions and linguistic devices across languages (e.g. word order, tense and aspect, inflection, color terms and syllable structure). Other chapters cover the history, methodology and the theory of typology, as well as the relationship between language typology and other disciplines. The authors of the individual sections and chapters are for the most part internationally known experts on the relevant topics. The vast majority of the articles are written in English, some in French or German. The handbook is not only intended for the expert in the fields of typology and language universals, but for all of those interested in linguistics. It is specifically addressed to all those who specialize in individual languages, providing basic orientation for their analysis and placing each language within the space of what is possible and common in the languages of the world.

The Universal Structure of Categories

The Universal Structure of Categories PDF Author: Martina Wiltschko
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139992627
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using data from a variety of languages such as Blackfoot, Halkomelem, and Upper Austrian German, this book explores a range of grammatical categories and constructions, including tense, aspect, subjunctive, case and demonstratives. It presents a new theory of grammatical categories - the Universal Spine Hypothesis - and reinforces generative notions of Universal Grammar while accommodating insights from linguistic typology. In essence, this new theory shows that language-specific categories are built from a small set of universal categories and language-specific units of language. Throughout the book the Universal Spine Hypothesis is compared to two alternative theories - the Universal Base Hypothesis and the No Base Hypothesis. This valuable addition to the field will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in linguistics.

Statistical Universals of Language

Statistical Universals of Language PDF Author: Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030593770
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume explores the universal mathematical properties underlying big language data and possible reasons why such properties exist, revealing how we may be unconsciously mathematical in our language use. These properties are statistical and thus different from linguistic universals that contribute to describing the variation of human languages, and they can only be identified over a large accumulation of usages. The book provides an overview of state-of-the art findings on these statistical universals and reconsiders the nature of language accordingly, with Zipf's law as a well-known example. The main focus of the book further lies in explaining the property of long memory, which was discovered and studied more recently by borrowing concepts from complex systems theory. The statistical universals not only possibly lie as the precursor of language system formation, but they also highlight the qualities of language that remain weak points in today's machine learning. In summary, this book provides an overview of language's global properties. It will be of interest to anyone engaged in fields related to language and computing or statistical analysis methods, with an emphasis on researchers and students in computational linguistics and natural language processing. While the book does apply mathematical concepts, all possible effort has been made to speak to a non-mathematical audience as well by communicating mathematical content intuitively, with concise examples taken from real texts.

Case, Argument Structure, and Word Order

Case, Argument Structure, and Word Order PDF Author: Shigeru Miyagawa
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415878594
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the years, a major strand of Miyagawa's research has been to study how syntax, case marking, and argument structure interact. In particular, Miyagawa's work addresses the nature of the relationship between syntax and argument structure, and how case marking and other phenomena help to elucidate this relationship. In this collection of new and revised pieces, Miyagawa expands and develops new analyses for numeral quantifier stranding, ditransitive constructions, nominative/genitive alternation, "syntactic" analysis of lexical and syntactic causatives, and historical change in the accusative case marking from Old Japanese to Modern Japanese. All of these analyses demonstrate an intimate relation among case marking, argument structure, and word order.

Noun Phrase Structure in the Languages of Europe

Noun Phrase Structure in the Languages of Europe PDF Author: Frans Plank
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110197073
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 878

Get Book Here

Book Description
The result of over five years of close collaboration among an international group of leading typologists within the EUROTYP program, this volume is about the morphology and syntax of the noun phrase. Particular attention is being paid to nominal inflectional categories and inflectional systems and to the syntax of determination, modification, and conjunction. Its areal focus, like that of other EUROTYP volumes, is on the languages of Europe; but in order to appreciate what is peculiarly European about their noun phrases, a more comprehensive and genuinely typological view is being taken at the full range of cross-linguistic variation within this structural domain. There has been no shortage lately of contributions to the theory of noun phrase structure; the present volume is, however, unique in the extent to which its theorizing is empirically grounded.