Questions tagged [linguistic-typology]
The study of structural features, diversity and commonalities among the world's languages.
334 questions
1
vote
0
answers
22
views
Linguistic map of direct speech VS indirect speech
I would like to have a linguistic map of whether indirect/direct speech are commonly used in languages:
Categories:
Both indirect and direct speech
Mainly direct speech (or a mixed indirect speech ...
- 514
6
votes
0
answers
104
views
How frequent is the Accusativus cum Infinitivo (AcI) in non-IE languages?
The accusativus cum infinitivo (AcI) is a famous construction known from Latin and Classical Greek, and it also occurs less frequently in Germanic languages. In many cases it cannot be translated ...
- 32k
5
votes
0
answers
107
views
Does any language distinguish the agent of a monotransitive clause from the agent of a ditransitive clause?
I'm going down a bit of a rabbit hole at the moment trying to understand how morphosyntactic alignment works when accounting for ditransitive clauses too, not just monotransitives and intransitives - ...
- 730
5
votes
1
answer
293
views
What languages have third-person imperative verb forms?
What languages have third-person imperative verb forms? I know Greek does, and I believe Latin does as well; are there any others?
- 361
4
votes
1
answer
185
views
Are there any subject-verb-object languages which put the predicate before the copula, or subject-object-verb languages which put predicate after it?
English and Croatian are subject-verb-object languages, and, in them, the predicate goes after the copula. For instance, in Croatian, you say "Ruže su crvene." ("su" being the ...
- 1,048
2
votes
1
answer
105
views
Did synchronic typology exist before Joseph Greenberg?
Overall, it seems to me purely synchronic linguistics did not exist before European (Saussure), Russian (Jakobson), American (Boas) structuralism.
Saussure (1916) synthesized linguistics history in ...
- 326
3
votes
0
answers
87
views
Low vowel phonetic realization
It's commonly said that in a language with only a single low vowel, for most languages its most typical allophone will be a central [ä]. (I'm excluding languages that have predictable allophony that ...
- 1,356
4
votes
1
answer
217
views
Is C₁VC₂-C₁- reduplication attested?
As the Wikipedia article on reduplication states, "There is a tendency for prefixing reduplicants to copy left-to-right and for suffixing reduplicants to copy right-to-left". But there are ...
- 11.2k
2
votes
0
answers
173
views
Are all alignments of A, P, Sa and Sp attested?
I put together this graphic to visualize what I think are all possible alignments of A, P, Sa and Sp:
(Sorry the text is so small; I had to downsize the image so the height wouldn't take up the full ...
- 730
6
votes
1
answer
157
views
Do conjunctions like "and" ever become grammaticalized into plural morphemes?
If so, what are some examples of this having occurred?
For instance, take a scenario where "X-and-X" is a common expression of plurality, as in English emphatic quantitative expressions like ...
- 63
3
votes
0
answers
51
views
List of counter examples + statistics of Greenberg's universal
I could not find a list of counter examples/ statistics of Greenberg's linguistic universals.
There are numbers that I could find relevant information on WALS. There are some I could not find anything....
- 514
2
votes
1
answer
227
views
Did big languages generally have a net loss of inflectional morphology in the past 1-3 millennia and small languages the other way round?
a.
R. M. W. Dixon (1998) theorizes that languages normally evolve in a cycle from fusional to analytic to agglutinative to fusional again like a clock. There are two opposing forces: one reduces ...
- 514
0
votes
0
answers
46
views
What is the filiation of contemporary English-speaking countries typology?
What is the filiation of the contemporary English-speaking countries typology?
IMU, the representative of the contemporary English-speaking countries typology are Keenan, Comrie, Dryer and Dixon.
But ...
- 326
0
votes
0
answers
64
views
Is "more than one" always treated as grammatically singular across languages with singular/plural?
In English, we say "more than one book is on the table," where "more than one" is treated as singular despite referring to a quantity greater than one. This pattern is also ...
- 109
1
vote
0
answers
126
views
What are linguistic concepts that are not widely applicable outside European languages?
Most linguists are familiar with European languages, and then may have also studied some Eurasian languages that are familiar to Europeans such as Japanese and varieties of Chinese. So it may be that ...
- 1,356
1
vote
0
answers
106
views
In chinese 命運, 安慰. In japanese 運命, 慰安. it seems chinese graphs are switched regularly
Why these differences are made. Thanks in advance. (This question body does not meet our quality standards. Please make sure that it completely describes your problem - including what you have already ...
0
votes
0
answers
43
views
Polynonpersonal agreement: agreement for noun class of multiple arguments
Among languages that inflect their verbs for person, a majority index both the agent and patient arguments in a transitive clause.
There are also languages that index one argument for non-person ...
- 1,386
1
vote
0
answers
58
views
What theory of syntax and grammar do language typologists tend to prefer?
The first concerns the theory of syntax and grammar that typologists prefer:
What theory of syntax and grammar do language typologists tend to prefer? Do they prefer a transformational phrase ...
- 319
2
votes
0
answers
43
views
How do different grammar theory (e.g. PSG, FG) explain word order in different language? [closed]
In typology, how do different types of grammar theories (such as phrase structure grammar, functional grammar, etc.) explain different linear word order in different languages? I know that dependency ...
- 319
0
votes
2
answers
126
views
Yoruba purpose clauses
Is there anyone who knows how are made purpose clauses of Yoruba? I know that in typological literature they are classified as balanced (= the verb form of the purpose clause may also occur in a main ...
- 1
2
votes
0
answers
122
views
Phonotactic Parallels to Pyysalo's Laryngeal and Schwa
Jouna Pyysalo has a rather unique reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European, that he calls System PIE (documented here, amongst other places) and describes as a new form of monolaryngealism.
This ...
- 12.1k
0
votes
1
answer
94
views
Are stylistic devices universal across world languages?
By stylistic devices, I mean things like:
Metaphors: using a word for similar object instead of the implied word ("toxic person")
Metonymy: using a word for related object instead of the ...
- 357
7
votes
1
answer
165
views
Is there any modern language that is currently shifting from one stage to the next in Jespersen's cycle?
Modern French seems to be going through the next stage in Jespersen's cycle, from Neg-V-Neg to V-Neg; i.e. Ce n'est pas toi to C'est pas toi.
What else is shifting from one to the next?
- 73
2
votes
0
answers
76
views
How to interpret Givón's (1981) implicational scale for indefinite articles developed from numeral 'one'?
I'm having trouble understanding the implicational scale for indefinite articles developed from numeral 'one' given by T Givón (1981: 50-52).
T. Givón in his paper "On the development of the ...
- 31
4
votes
0
answers
116
views
Any examples of any language bifurcating the past into past before one's life and past during one's life?
It can be either from a conlang or a natlang but I wasn't able to find any examples.
- 41