Linguistics001LinguisticTypology

Linguistics001:LinguisticTypologyPartII:FurtheraspectsofTypologyRecallthat•Weareexaminingsomethevariouswaysinwhichlanguagesdiffer•Inthebackground,thequestionishowthesedifferencescanbereconciledwiththeideathatthereisaninnateaspectoflanguage•Inourfinalexamplesfromthelastlecture,webeganlookingatsyntactictypologyandwordorderReview,cont.•Weintroducedintheabstractsomedifferenttypesofvariation:–Whetheralanguagehasafixedword-orderornot–Whatthefixedword-orderofthelanguageisinthefirstplace–WhethertherehavetobesubjectandobjectNounPhrasesinthefirstplace•Ourillustrationconcentratedonthefirsttype,whetherornotalanguageallowsfreewordorderToday’stopics•Wordordertypology,continued•Ergativity•Morphology:Templates…Comparison•English:–Themansawthevessel.(SVO)•Mapudungun:–Allsixpossibilitiesoflinearorderaregrammatical•TheideawasthatinMapudungun,informationaboutsubject,objectetc.isfoundintheverbalmorphologyWordOrders•InadditiontoallowingSVOsentences,alloftheotherpossiblearrangementsaregrammaticalaswell:–INchemetawepefin.SOV–MetaweiNchepefin.OSV–MetawepefiniNcheOVS–PefinmetaweiNcheVOS–PefiniNchemetaweVSOAgreementandFreeWordOrder•Howarethegrammaticalrolesofthesenounphrasesdetermined?•Abovetheverbisgivenaspefin•Thisverbactuallyhasalotofinformationinit:Pe-fi-nSee-Object.Marker-1sS•Thatis,theverbsaysthatthesubjectisfirstpersonsingular,andthatthereisathirdpersonobject.•ThusthedifferentwordorderscanbeunderstoodasexpressingthesamebasicpropositionFreeWordOrderandCase•Anothertypeoflanguagethathasfreewordordershowscasemorphology.•Considerthefollowingformsofthenounfemina‘woman’inLatin(thecolonindicatesvowellength):SingularPluralNom.feminafeminaeAcc.feminamfemina:sDat.feminaefemini:sGen.feminaefemina:rumAbl.femina:femini:s•Notethattheendsofthesewordsindicatethegrammaticalrole.Onnouns,suchmorphemesarecalledcasemorphemesCase,continued•ThismeansthatinLatin,wherethewordorderisrelativelyfree,therolethataparticularNPplaysisencodedonthatthatNP:–Feminacanemvidet.woman-NOMdog-ACCsees‘Thewomanseesthedog’–Canemfeminavidet.–Videtcanemfemina.–….NounsandVerbs•Whateverorderthewordsmayappearin,theNouns(NPs),aslongasthecasemarkingisthesamethebasicsemanticsisthesame.•Theinformationisnotentirelymarkedintheverb,whichconveysperson,number,tense,butnotthefullmessageabouttheevent•Theverbhereissee,markedfor3sandpresenttense.Bothdogandwomanare3s…•Latinprobablyhasa“basic”wordorder(SOV),butusesthesevariantsfreelytoemphasizeordeemphasizedifferentpartsofthesentence(Mapudunguntooprobably)Backtobasicwordorders•Aswediscussedabove,therearesomelanguagesthatdonotallowfreewordorder•Languages(ofthistype)tendtodisplayabasicwordorder,whichisusedinunmarkedcircumstances•Amongthese,thereareagaindifferencesintermsofwhatorderisemployedPossibilities/Illustrations•SVO:–English:Themanatetheapple.•SOV(rememberHindiinthelastclass):–Turkish:•Hasanöküz-üald1.Hasanox-ACCbought.•Inthesetwotypes,whatdiffersistherelativepositionoftheverbandtheobjectNP•Rememberthatasimplewayofthinkingofthiswasthatthetreestructuresarethesame,withtheorderofVandtheNPobjectreversedRemember…SNPAuxPRahulVPAuxNPV“had”thebookreadThisistheHindiversion.Lookcarefullyatwhathaschanged.VOS•BasicVOSWordOrder:–Malagasy(spokeninMadagascar)•Nahitanympianatranyvehivavysawthestudentthewoman‘Thewomansawthestudent’•VOSdoesn’tprovidethesamechallengeasVSO,whichwediscussedlasttime(drawthetree…)•Atthesametime,itmightbethecasethatthisisn’tjustthe“subjectmirrorimage”ofSVOObject-initial?•Whiletheabovepatternsareclearlyattested,ordersinwhichtheobjectappearsfirstarehardtofind•OneexampleofOVS:–Hixkaryana(Carib,N.Brazil)•TotoyahosIyekamara.mangrabjaguar‘Thejaguargrabbedtheman’•Inmanycasesthesituationiscomplicatedbecauseofwhatitmeanstohavea‘basic’wordorderinthefirstplace(e.g.youcangetOVSorderinlotsoflanguages;thequestionis,isthis“basic”ornot)Frequencies•Somestudiestakesamplesoflanguagesandcountthepercentagesofthesetypes(e.g.MallinsonandBlake1981):–SOV:41%–SVO:35%–VSO:9%–VOS:2%–OVS:1%–OSV:??•Whilesuchnumbersgiveusanideaofwhat’soutthere,itisnotclearwhatelsewecanlearnfromthem,giventhatthesamplesarereflectionsofnon-linguisticfactors(history)Verb-initialorders:VSO•VSO:–Welsh:•Lladdoddyddraigydyn.killedthedragontheman‘Thedragonkilledtheman.’•Question:Canthisbederivedasstraight-forwardlyasSVO/SOV,wherewejustchangetheorderoftheVP?Questions•Specifically:canwe“relinearize”theSVOtreetoyieldtheVSOtree?•Answer:Notwithout“crossinglines”•Ifwedonotwanttocrosslines,thensomethingadditionalmustbehappeninginVSOlanguages.Thatis…•Consider:SNPVPThemanVNPkilledthedragonEnglishquestions…•Remember,Englishis–S(AUX)VO–Johndidn’teattheapples•Butinquestions,theAUXismovedtoapositionthatprecedesthesubject:–Didn’tJohnteateatapples?•ThesametypeofsolutioncanbeappliedtoWelsh(andVSOgenerally)Ergativity:AnIntroduction•We’veseencaseslike“Nominative”and“Accusative”;e.g.–Isawhim.•I=nominativecaseformof1stsingular•Him=accusativecaseformof3rdsingular•EveninEnglish,wherewedon’tseeitveryoften(onlyinpronouns),wehavethefollowingpattern:–Subject:Nominativecase–Object:Accusativecase•Thenwecantalk