Explanations in Typology Flashcards
Description vs explanation
- surface vs depth
- implicit criticism of the functionalist approach
- what counts as an explanation within this framework?
The concept of explanation: Internal vs external explanation.
- Internal explanations remain within the system (language).
> Rules of grammar. - External explanations look outside the system
> extra-linguistic factors
> linguistic structures affected by context of use
> Not “rules” but “forces” shape of language
External Factors that could affect linguistic structures
Cognition Communication Cultural/social norms or social environment Physical environment ......etc
Ex Factor: COGNITION
About language itself.
Language processing
Limitation on human abilities.
> Length
>Organization
‘The candidate hoped to win the election lost.’
- people will avoid saying - confusing
Perception-cognition(processing)
Assumption:
All attested structures are ‘processable’.
> Structures that are easy to process will be more frequent.
> Frequent structures are easy to process.
WOrd order: Nearly 90% of the world’s languages have S before V.
Assumption:
> Structures that align with cognitive structures
should be more frequent.
> Frequent structures tell us about cognitive structures.
Ex Factor: COMMUNICATION
Language must convey information effectively.
> Humans structure their speech so as to do it best.
E.g. Discourse structures.
Passive constructions for non-agentive topics.
- Sorry I couldn’t make it on Monday, tricky week-end.
- What happened?
- My house got broken into.
House = subject, not the thieves who broke into house. easier flow of info in convo.
Assumption:
> Structures with good potential for communication
will be more frequent.
Ex Factor: Social Environment
- Honorifics in Japanese
- Vouvoiement in French- use second person plural when you just talk to one person to mark social distance
- persists in romance language, not english, bu does it correlate with current social climate of romance langs?
KINTAX for groups with complex kinship systems. E.g. Dalabon disharmonic prefixes > ‘Harmonic’ (or even) generations My younger brother and I go’ > ‘Disharmonic’ (or odd) generations ‘My father and I go’
TO SPEAK GRAMMATICALLY you must know the kinship relations of everyone in speech community - only works for certain types of small communities/cultures
Life-style.
> Living in an industrial/urban society.
- Berlin & Kay’s (1969) on color terms.
- Frames of reference (Palmer et al. 2017)
Assumptions
> Language structures adapt to their social environment.
> Languages tell us about the social environment.
Languages not pure expression of cognitive functions.
Explains some of the diversity
Ex Factor: PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Sound systems influenced by climate? > Languages with tones in humid regions. Everett, Blasi & Roberts 2015 > Humidity affects vocal cords. > Favors adaptive development of phonological tones. Especially complex tone systems
Landscape influence spacial description.
> Evident just from a few languages (Palmer et al. 2017).
Can have repercussions on cognition (Levinson 2008).
LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT: Whorfian Hypothesis
The particular linguistic structures available in a given language influence:
- Speakers’ thought (representations, concepts…)
- Speakers’ behaviors and actions
- ‘Culture’ (shared practices and concepts)
(Whorf 1956)
Validity of Whorfian Hypothesis?
Demonstrated for some aspects of language/cognition.
E.g. frames of reference (Levinson 2008)
Discarded for others.
Lexical distinctions (Malt 2010)
people tend to equate words and concept - it is not the case that not having the word does not have the concept
Language and thought: Directionality
Linguistic relativity postulates an influence from language.
> It’s debated.
# Influence of thought and practices on language.
> Often taken for granted
Implicit assumption:
- Language reflects thoughts.
- Language is a window on speakers’ representations.
> NOT necessarily so
often at work when we do typology
Language and thought? yes maybe, but it can be complicated
Linguistic factors
Language is not a straight window on cognition.
> Linguistic mechanisms influence linguistic structures.
> Language change.
> Diffusion.
The meaning of distributions: Ergativity
- Marking S like O.
> Contrasting with A.
Only about 25%
of the world’s languages.
- often areal (australia, south america)
75% are NOMINATIVE ACCUSATIVE
Does distribution of 25%ergative& 75%nominative match principles of human cognition?
There is neurophysiological evidence.
Bickel et al. (2015)
Communication constraints?
Ergative marking is actually useful in discourse organization.
Dubois (1987)
Other completely different factors?
> Languages change all the time.
- Ergativity very rarely occurs.
- Because it requires a series of complex changes.
Genesis of ergativity in Cariban languages
South America - Gildea (1992)
Non-finite verbs in all subordinate contexts.
Treated as possessed nouns.
Possessor is S for intransitive and O for transitives.
(i.e. ergative alignment, but only nominalized forms)
Reinterpreted as full verbal arguments
in some types of main clauses.??????????????
UNLIKELY
LING FACTORS: Patterns of language change
Contribute to explain why ergativity is rare.
> In combination with cognitive parameters.
- And why it is areal.
> Once it occurs it can persist for a while.
