Typology and Diversity

Question 1

How many living languages?

Answer 1

about 7000

Question 2

Where do living languages tend to cluster?

Answer 2

around the equator

• where humanity developed
• Sustains higher population densities
• less intensively colonised by Europeans

Question 3

Morphological variation (3)

Answer 3

Isolating
Agglutinating
Fusional

Question 4

Syntactic variation (3)

Answer 4

Constituent order
Case marking
verbal marking

Question 5

What is linguistic typology?

Answer 5

Identifying what languages have in common, and what (if any) limits there are.

Question 6

What are the most common constituent orders?

Answer 6

SVO
SOV
(not random, universally predetermined)

Question 7

What are the least common constituent orders?

Answer 7

NODOM
OSV
OVS

Question 8

What are the motivators for subject initial being most frequent across languages? (3)

Answer 8

usually a semantic agent
usually a topic
natural order of understanding

Question 9

What are the tendencies in SOV languages? (4)

Answer 9

postpositions
adjective noun
possessor noun
Suffixes

Question 10

What are the tendencies in SVO languages?(4)

Answer 10

Prepositions
Noun Adjective
Noun possessor
Prefixes

Question 11

What are typological universals?

Answer 11

what is necessarily present in any human language.

What is impossible or unlikely.

Question 12

What is an absolute?

Answer 12

rule that applies to every language

Question 13

What is a non-absolute?

Answer 13

Statistical tendency, applies to most languages

Question 14

What is a non-implicational?

Answer 14

a simple statement that has no dependants

Question 15

What is an implicational?

Answer 15

a statement that says if… then…

Question 16

Name two absolute non-implicationals.

Answer 16

All language have nouns and verbs

All spoken langaugese have consonants and vowels

Question 17

Name one absolute implicational.

Answer 17

If there is a plural form, then there is a singular

Question 18

Name two non-absolute non-implicationals

Answer 18

Most languages have adjectives

Most languages put the subject at the start

Question 19

Name non-absolute implicationals

Answer 19

If a language has affricates, it tends to have fricatives.

Question 20

What is markedness?

Answer 20

When there are two options in a paradigmatic relationship, often they do not have equal status.
Unmarked: more frequent, default
marked: something added to the unmarked value.

Question 21

What is markedness in phonology?

Answer 21

Many phonological features are binary, represented as +/-

they have asymmetric distribution

Question 22

What is plural form marked with?

Answer 22

morphologically marked with a formal suffix.

Question 23

Is singular form marked or unmarked in English?

Answer 23

unmarked

Question 24

What is formal markedness?

Answer 24

linguistic material

Question 25

What is functional markedness?

Answer 25

relates to relationship between two values

Question 26

What is the umarked gender in French/common in most languages?

Answer 26

Masculine

Question 27

What is an example of markedness in Lexicon?

Answer 27

gradable opposites
eg Tall is unmarked
Short is marked, implies a presupposition

Question 28

When we categorise a language as (eg) SVO, we refer to the _____ order for that language.

Answer 28

unmarked

specific languages require knowledge of constituent order