Questions tagged [linguistic-typology]
The study of structural features, diversity and commonalities among the world's languages.
240
questions
2
votes
2answers
175 views
Conditional clauses, use of 'if, then, else' in major non-English languages?
Are there major languages in the world that construct conditional clauses differently than English? That is, the translation of "if" and associated words would not be direct due to different ...
1
vote
0answers
95 views
Are there any known linguistic patterns that cause the verb “have” to take on this additional function?
I'm a native English speaker that has been learning Mandarin.
The Mandarin equivalent to the English verb "to have" is "有". As far as I can tell these two words are a 1 to 1 ...
11
votes
1answer
220 views
Why is reconstructed PIE so typologically unusual?
I'm probably not the first to notice that a large number of features of reconstruct Proto-Indo-European are typological irregularities. The most famous of these probably being the voiceless/voiced/...
3
votes
0answers
38 views
Resolving adjoined relative clause with head nouns
In languages with adjoined relative clause, How do you know which relative clause maps to which head noun for adjoined relative clause if there are 2 head nouns each with an adjoined relative clause?
0
votes
1answer
165 views
Are there any languages with gender neutral pronouns for unknown gender?
There are proposals to introduce in several languages gender-neutral pronouns to refer to groups of mixed gender or single individuals of unknown gender.
Are there examples of existing languages that ...
0
votes
0answers
32 views
What would be the collective noun for collection of words whose affixal markers indicate the same grammatical categories?
I am working on Sanskrit, a fusional language. I am confused about what should be the collective noun that I should be used to address the set {nominals, verb, adverb, indeclinable, participle}. Could ...
1
vote
0answers
65 views
inflected languages other than IE and Semitic ones
When one looks for examples of inflected languages outside the Indo-European and, perhaps, Semitic domains, it seems that there is none. Does anyone here know other examples in different linguistic ...
2
votes
0answers
65 views
“The more the merrier”
What is the linguistic status of utterances like "The more, the merrier"?
In English it would not be considered a sentence because there is no verb. Yet, it fully stands on its own ...
5
votes
4answers
1k views
Can languages restrict their number of distinct syllables when written by syllabaries?
Disclaimer: I am not a linguist, please provide any corrections for terminology.
From How languages compare with the number of different syllables from all words?, Yoon Mi Oh's thesis counted the ...
8
votes
2answers
801 views
How languages compare with the number of different syllables from all words?
Note: I am not a linguist, please provide any corrections for terminology.
I would like to find some approximate data (if it exists) comparing several languages with the number of different syllables ...
2
votes
1answer
208 views
Spelling of monotonous [closed]
All, I am just curious why 'monotonous' is spelled as mo·not·o·nous and not as
mono.tonus following the Greek origin of the word as mono + tone. Mono and tone could be spelled alone and actually ...
-1
votes
1answer
166 views
Mistakes in Native Language
I was wondering if there is some research on the number of mistakes made by native speakers in certain languages? I think that since some languages are more complex (their grammar is more complex) and ...
3
votes
1answer
76 views
Are there languages with separate words for 'mouth opening' and 'mouth cavity'?
I am looking for languages which have separate words for the visible opening of the mouth (the external part, including or not including the lips), and the cavity (the internal part). Put another way, ...
6
votes
2answers
274 views
Are there languages where pronouns are marked entirely with conjugations?
I know of languages (Arabic in particular comes to mind) where the subject pronoun can be dropped because verb conjugation encodes at least as much information as a pronoun might. I also know that ...
0
votes
1answer
89 views
Isn't the supposed development in German “schön” > “schon” typologically unlikely
schon - yet, already
schön - well, nice, pretty, beautiful
Wiktionary has schon from an old German word equivalent to modern schön. I think this is typologically unlikely, though of course my sample ...
2
votes
1answer
51 views
Is there an adposition type that occurs before both the modified noun and the object?
From what I've read, there are four attested types of adpositions. Prepositions and postpositions are the most common, but circumpositions (discontinuous morphemes that occur around their objects) ...
1
vote
1answer
92 views
Are there natural languages that tolerate ambiguity between abilitive and possibilitive modalities?
In other words, is there any language that uses the same mood to convey ability and possibility? For example, is there a language in which a sentence meaning "He'll be able to do that" and "He might ...
7
votes
2answers
278 views
What does Eastern Aramaic have to say about “(definite) articles are acquired, not lost”?
The current answers on Definite/indefinite articles vs. inflections agree that (definite) articles are acquired by languages, not lost.
I'm wondering what Eastern Aramaic has to say about this. ...
0
votes
1answer
72 views
Outside of English, is there a difference between noun infinitives and gerunds?
In English class in high school, we learn (or at least I did) about verbals, words that stem from verbs but do not function as verbs. Two kinds are infinitives and gerunds.
Infinitives are usually ...
2
votes
2answers
220 views
Is there empirical support for this implicational universal: “if a language has no plural morphology, it has no tense marking”?
The WALS map that crossclassifies number and past tense morphology shows that they tend to covary. I want to know if people with a deeper knowledge of linguistic typology can vouch for this ...
1
vote
0answers
70 views
What are the unique features of the Australian Aboriginal Languages compared to other world languages
Not looking phonologically but grammatically, what are the languages which would be a good reference point for starting studies in Australian Aboriginal languages? Western Desert Language? Others? Are ...
6
votes
3answers
952 views
what is the essential difference between human languages to other earthly animalia languages?
I personally define "language" as a system of body actions that are generally supplemented by sound, representing one or more "meaning" or "message" (logic datum) for an organism itself and/or other ...
9
votes
1answer
208 views
Are all “Ergative Languages” split-ergative?
I've noticed that in a lot of examples of "ergative languages," there is some piece of the language that does not fit the pattern we call "ergativity." For example, Basque does not mark ergative case ...
5
votes
0answers
96 views
How common are languages with different word orders in matrix and non-matrix clauses
How common is it cross-linguistically for a language to have a different word order in various types of embedded clauses such as relative clauses?
WALS appears to collect information on word order in ...
2
votes
1answer
125 views
Distribution and origin of reflexive pronouns like “myself” across languages
I'm neither a professional linguist nor a native English speaker, please excuse me if I use any term incorrectly. Feel free to make and suggest edits to make my question more clear.
Question
Hello,
I ...
-1
votes
1answer
105 views
Some scholars says that you cannot make the plural and feminine form of word Allah from arabic linguistic perspective [closed]
Is it possible from arabic linguistic perspective to make the plural and feminine form of word الله? for example اللهون plural form of word الله and اللت feminine form of word الله because in Arabic, ...
1
vote
1answer
192 views
Glottal stops- comparative frequency among commonly spoken languages
I'm a brand new member who enjoys words and languages but I am not a trained linguist.
Which common languages of the world, and families of languages, are considered the most glottal (most glottal ...
7
votes
2answers
3k views
Phonetic distortion when words are borrowed among languages
When languages borrow words from other languages, they sometimes deliberately distort words to make them phonetically easier to pronounce.
For example, when Japanese speakers are taught the word "...
0
votes
1answer
322 views
What type of language ( tonal, pitch- stressed etc.) is Tamil? [closed]
Languages are classified according to tones, stress, pitch etc. What type is Tamil language?
39
votes
3answers
9k views
Is English tonal for some words, like “permit”?
I have heard the difference between tone and intonation described in the following way:
Tone is when the pitch of a word determines its meaning.
Intonation is when the pitch of a word conveys its ...
6
votes
2answers
494 views
Are there languages that inflect adverbs for gender
Triggered by this answer, I am curious: Are there languages that inflect adverbs for gender or noun class?
I have consulted the following two questions but the given inflections of adverbs in their ...
20
votes
8answers
4k views
What are some interesting features that are common cross-linguistically but don't exist in English?
This is on purpose not a very concrete question, I simply want to know some interesting properties other languages have that English doesn't, or features you even think English ought to have, this can ...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
What is sentence focus environment?
I am currently reading a chapter about dialect that distinguish dialects according to the alignment that is used in the dialect (alignment such as nominative-accusative, tripartite. etc)
I am ...
5
votes
3answers
247 views
What are the reasons to justify that some text is in X language?
Let us say that I am in a library alone and I have a text that I think that is in X language, for example, this fragment of the 9th chapter of the 2nd part of the novel 1984 by George Orwell, that I ...
7
votes
4answers
966 views
Is a text with orthographic or grammatic mistakes in a language X still a text in that language X?
Let us suppose that we have a text that in its majority follows the orthographic or grammatical rules of a language X, but 10% of the words have orthographic mistakes, and 10% of the sentences have ...
4
votes
1answer
125 views
Ease of L2 acquisition of SOV and SVO/VSO word order
Is it easier for speakers of SOV languages to learn SOV/VSO syntax or vice versa?
I've been reading about constructed languages recently, specifically the ones intended to be easy to learn such as ...
14
votes
3answers
6k views
Is English unusual in having no second person plural form?
In Spanish, there are the "vosotros" (only used in Spain) and "ustedes" (formal in Spain) forms for use when talking to a group of people. These also use specific conjugations different different from ...
0
votes
2answers
198 views
Are there languages where this “is” phrase is reversed?
"A cat is an animal".
"Is a cat an animal?"
I have a theory that the word order here is important. One must first put the image of a "cat" in your brain BEFORE recognising if it is an "animal".
For ...
1
vote
2answers
137 views
Can we predict language death just by looking at grammar?
Is it possible to predict that a language is about to die out just by looking at its structure? So without taking into account the number of native speakers it has and other external factors? If so, ...
2
votes
3answers
150 views
Which (australian aboriginal?) language classifies nouns in “upright” things and “lying” things?
I'm quite sure I remember that in one class, while we were talking about aboriginal languages, the professor said that one language or more languages, classify nouns in the two categories from the ...
8
votes
5answers
1k views
What's weird about Proto-Indo-European Stops?
I was reading Wikipedia, and it maintains that it's unusual for a language to have a voiceless-voiced-breathy distinction (without a voiceless aspirated), but that the Sanskrit 4-way distinction is ...
3
votes
2answers
330 views
What causes relative frequency of consonants?
So, can you point me to some research, what causes the relative frequency of consonants in various languages?The fact that vowels are more common than consonants is obviously caused by phonotactics, ...
24
votes
2answers
3k views
Fourth person (in Slavey language)
I was reading a Wikipedia article about the Slavey (Slave) language in Canada, and it says that Slavey has first, second, third and fourth person. I've never heard about a language having a fourth ...
-1
votes
2answers
371 views
Is it really impossible for two different languages to have the exact same set of phonemes?
Is it really impossible for two different languages to have the exact same set of phonemes?
I read that somewhere and wanted to know if it was true.
0
votes
4answers
875 views
Is it possible to have a word-based language completely without word inflection?
First, sorry if I'm not using the correct terminology here.
By "word-based", I mean typical Indo-European languages (plus Uralic) where there are only tens of characters (e.g. "A to Z" (Latin) or "А ...
1
vote
0answers
101 views
Is Haitian Creole morphology fusional?
There are conflicting views regarding how Haitian Creole is classified in relation to its lexifier--French. I am trying to give a good description of Haitian Creole in terms of its morphology. Is ...
6
votes
1answer
130 views
Are the hebrew prefix letters (משה וכלב) considered a form of agglutination?
An example of this letters can be seen in the word וכשלהתמרמרויותינו
where the וכש at start mean "and during to" (the entire word means "and during to our grumblings).
2
votes
0answers
147 views
Direct–inverse marking on the noun, or the possiblity of inverse alignment
A direct-inverse language, Wikipedia claims, is one which
involve[s] different grammar for transitive predications according to the relative positions of their "subject" and their "object" on a ...
4
votes
3answers
247 views
Is the existence of a mixed branch of Indo-European plausible?
I was thinking about the possible existence of a branch of the Indo-European family that combines features of several branches.
For example, a branch that is something in between the Germanic and ...
5
votes
2answers
204 views
Is “indirect object” syntactically definable or useful, in English or generally?
In traditional English grammar, we're taught that phrases like those boldfaced below are "indirect objects":
I gave the book to Ted.
I gave Ted the book.
But this appears to be based on semantics (...
