Linguistic typology is a subfield of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features. Morphological typology is a way of classifying the languages of the world (see Linguistic typology) that groups languages according to their common morphological structures In morphological typology (in linguistics an isolating language (also analytic language) is any Language in which words are composed of A synthetic language, in Linguistic typology, is a Language with a high Morpheme -per- word ratio Polysynthetic languages are highly Synthetic languages ie languages in which words are composed of many Morphemes Definition The degree of For fusion in Word formation, see Compound (linguistics. A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them An ergative-absolutive Language (or simply ergative language is a language that treats the argument (" subject " of an Intransitive Austronesian alignment, commonly known as the Philippine- or Austronesian -type voice system, is a typologically unusual Morphosyntactic alignment An active-stative language, or active language for short is one in which the sole argument of an Intransitive verb is sometimes marked in the same way A tripartite language, also called an ergative-accusative language, is one that treats the subject of an intransitive verb the subject of a transitive verb and the object A direct-inverse language is a language where clauses with transitive verbs can be expressed either using a direct or an inverse construction The syntactic pivot is the Verb argument around which sentences "revolve" in a given Language. In Generative grammar, (in particular Government and binding theory and the Standard Theory of Transformational Grammar a theta role or θ-role is the In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic In Linguistics, a VO language is a language in which the Verb typically comes before the object (thus including SVO, VOS and In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object Verb Subject Object ( VSO) is a term in Linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these In Linguistic typology, Verb Object Subject or Verb Object Agent - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS or VOA - represents the language-classification In Linguistics, an OV language is a language in which the object comes before the Verb. In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually Object Subject Verb (OSV or Object Agent Verb (OAV is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. Object Verb Subject (OVS or Object Verb Agent (OVA is one of the Permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology, although it is rare among Time Manner Place (TMP describes one possible ordering of Adpositional phrases in sentences Place Manner Time is a term used in Linguistic typology to state the general order of Adpositional phrases in a language's sentences "to the store by car Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity of the world's languages. It includes three subdisciplines: qualitative typology, which deals with the issue of comparing languages and within-language variance, quantitative typology, which deals with the distribution of structural patterns in the world’s languages, and theoretical typology, which explains these distributions.
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Qualitative typology
Qualitative typology develops cross-linguistically viable notions or types which provide a framework for the description and comparison of individual languages. In psycholinguistics, application of this study comes under the heading of syntax. Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable Humans to acquire use In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the A few examples are given below.
Typological systems
Subject-Verb-Object positioning
One set of types is determined by the basic order of subject, verb, and direct object in sentences:
- Subject Verb Object
- Subject Object Verb
- Verb Subject Object
- Verb Object Subject
- Object Subject Verb
- Object Verb Subject
These are usually abbreviated SVO and so forth, and may be called "typologies" of the languages to which they apply. In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually Verb Subject Object ( VSO) is a term in Linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these In Linguistic typology, Verb Object Subject or Verb Object Agent - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS or VOA - represents the language-classification Object Subject Verb (OSV or Object Agent Verb (OAV is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. Object Verb Subject (OVS or Object Verb Agent (OVA is one of the Permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology, although it is rare among
Some languages split verbs into an auxiliary and an infinitive or participle, and put the subject or object between them. For instance, German ("Im Wald habe ich einen Fuchs gesehen" - *"In-the woods have I a fox seen"), Dutch ("Hans vermoedde dat Jan Piet Marie zag leren zwemmen" - *"Hans suspected that Jan Piet Marie saw teach swim") and Welsh ("Mae'r gwirio sillafu wedi'i gwblhau" - *"Is the checking spelling after its to complete"). In this case, typology is based on the non-analytic tenses (i. e. those sentences in which the verb is not split) or the position of the auxiliary. German is thus SVO/VSO (without "im Wald" the agent would go first) in main clauses and Welsh is VAP (and P would go after the infinitive).
Both German and Dutch are often classified as V2 languages, as the verb invariantly occurs as the second element of a full clause. Verb-second (V2 word order, in Syntax, is the rule in some languages that the second constituent of declarative main clauses is always a verb while this is not necessarily
Some languages allow varying degrees of freedom in their constituent order that pose a problem for their classification. To define a basic constituent order type in this case, one generally looks at frequency of different types in declarative affirmative main clauses in pragmatically neutral contexts, preferably with only old referents. Thus, for instance, Russian is widely considered an SVO language, as this is the most frequent constituent order under such conditions--all sorts of variations are possible, though, and occur in texts. In many inflected languages such as Russian, Latin, and Greek, departures from the default word orders are permissible, but usually imply a shift in focus, an emphasis on the final element, or some special context. In the poetry of these languages, the word order may also be freely shifted to meet metrical demands. Additionally, freedom of word order may vary within the same language--for example, formal, literary, or archaizing varieties may have different, stricter, or more lenient constituent-order strictures than an informal spoken variety of the same language.
On the other hand, when there is no clear preference under the described conditions, the language is considered to have "flexible constituent order" (a type unto itself).
An additional problem is that in languages without living speech communities, such as Latin, Hellenic Greek, and Old Church Slavonic, linguists have only written evidence, perhaps written in a poetic, formalizing, or archaic style that mischaracterizes the actual daily use of the language. The daily spoken language of a Sophocles or a Cicero might have exhibited much different or much more regular syntax than their written legacy indicates.
Morphosyntactic alignment
Another common classification is according to whether a language is nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive. In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them An ergative-absolutive Language (or simply ergative language is a language that treats the argument (" subject " of an Intransitive In a language with cases, the classification depends on whether the subject of an intransitive verb has the same case as the agent or the patient of a transitive verb. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the If a language has no cases, but the word order AVP or PVA, then a classification may be based on whether the subject of an intransitive verb appears on the same side as the agent or the patient of the transitive verb.
Many languages show mixed accusative and ergative behaviour (e. g. ergative morphology marking the verb arguments, on top of an accusative syntax). Other languages (called "active languages") have two types of intransitive verbs—some of them ("active verbs") join the subject in the same case as the agent of a transitive verb, and the rest ("stative verbs") join the subject in the same case as the patient. An active-stative language, or active language for short is one in which the sole argument of an Intransitive verb is sometimes marked in the same way Yet other languages behave ergatively only in some contexts (this is called split ergativity, and is usually based on the grammatical person of the arguments or in the tense/aspect of the verb). Split ergativity is shown by languages that have a partly ergative behaviour but employ another Syntax or morphology — usually accusative For example, only some verbs in Georgian behave this way, and, as a rule, only while the tense called aorist is used. Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.
Quantitative typology
Quantitative typology deals with the distribution and co-occurrence of structural patterns in the languages of the world. Two major types of non-chance distribution are preferences (for instance, absolute and implicational universals, semantic maps, hierarchies) and correlations (areal patterns, for instance, Sprachbund). A linguistic universal is a statement that is true for all Natural languages For example All languages have Nouns and Verbs, or All spoken Implicational hierarchy is a chain of implicational universals. A Sprachbund (ˈʃpraːxbʊnt in German plural Sprachbünde) from the German word for “language union” also known as a linguistic area, convergence
Bibliography
- Comrie, B. (1989). Language universals and linguistic typology: Syntax and morphology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd edn.
- Croft, W. (1990). Typology and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
- Cysouw, M. (2005). Quantitative methods in typology. Quantitative linguistics: an international handbook, ed. by Gabriel Altmann, Reinhard Köhler and R. Piotrowski. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Nichols, J. (1992). Linguistic diversity in space and time. Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time ( University of Chicago Press, 1992) is linguist Johanna Nichols 's best known work pioneering the use Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Song, J. J. (2001). Linguistic typology: Morphology and syntax. Harlow and London: Pearson Education (Longman).
- Song, J. J. (ed. ) (forthcoming). The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Whaley, L. J. (1997). Introduction to typology: The unity and diversity of language. Newbury Park: Sage.
External links
- Association for Linguistic Typology
- Plank, F. Themes in Typology: Basic Reading List. [1]
- Bickel, B. (2001). What is typology? - a short note. [2]
- Bickel, B. (2005). Typology in the 21st century: major developments. [3]
- Linguistic typologyPDF (275 KiB) , chapter 9 of Halvor Eifring & Rolf Theil: Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages
- World Atlas of Language Structures
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