Summary 1 Flashcards
What are the two types of classification of languages?
Genetic and by types (typological)
What is genetic classification + example?
Historical classification based on common ancestry
example: latin- parent language, french- daughter language, french and romanian- sister languages
what is the most common type of language classification?
genetic!
what are the problems with genetic classification?
The daughter languages do not split off from the parent language so neatly
Heavy borrowing from other (non-related) languages may obscure the relationship.
It assumes a clear distinction between a language and a dialect.
what is a recent phenomenon?
standardized language- dialects are the norm!
what is an example of a standardized force?
writing
what are The earliest attempts at classifying languages in the nineteenth century?
Languages by types (typological)
what kinds of typological classification are there?
isolating, inflecting, aggultinating
what does isolating mean?
No endings, mostly monosyllabic, unbound morphemes. Words have the same form regardless of their grammatical use. Grammar = word order.
what does Inflecting (flectional) mean?
Words have inflectional endings each of which may have several grammatical meanings at once. The inflections can show great variation.
what does Aggultinating mean?
Words have one stem and several affixes (bound morphemes) and are built up by adding units. Each unit has its own grammatical meaning. The affixes are very regular
example languages of isolating types?
Example languages: Chinese, Vietnamese, Samoan, other???
example languages of inflecting types?
Example languages: Latin, Greek, Arabic, other???
example languages of aggultinating types?
Example languages: Turkish, Finnish, Japanese and Swahili
what’s a problem with the type classification?
A lot of languages are combinations of two or more types:
exampled of A lot of languages are combinations of two or more types:
polysynthetic or incorporating, Example languages: Inuit, Mohawk, Australian aboriginal