Linguistic typology

Linguistic typology - Subject-Verb-Object positioning. One set of types is determined by the basic order of subject, verb, and object in sentences: Subject Verb Object Subject Object Verb Verb Subject Object Verb Object Subject Object Subject Verb Object Verb Subject These are usually abbreviated SVO and so forth, and may be cal ...

See also:

Linguistic typology, Linguistic typology - Typological systems, Linguistic typology - Subject-Verb-Object positioning, Linguistic typology - Ergative-accusative, Linguistic typology - External link

Read more here: » Linguistic typology: Encyclopedia II - Linguistic typology - Typological systems

Latin differs from languages like English in that it uses many noun cases which are declined in such a way that they are nearly all different from each other, and even proper nouns such as names are declined. For example, the ending of the common Roman name Marcus is different in each of the following sentences due to the different cases in which it is used (the name Cornelia remains undeclined): Marcus hits Cornelia. (Subject-Verb-Object, the most common permutation of expression in English)

There are several ways in which a language can exhibit synthetic characteristics: Synthetic language - Derivational synthesis. In derivational synthesis, morphemes of different types (nouns, verbs, affixes, etc.) are joined to create new words. For example: German: Luftkissenfahrzeug "air-cushion-travel-machine" = "hovercraft" Greek: υπερχοληστερολαιμία "overmuch/high-cholesterol-blood" = "hypercholesterolemia" Japanese: teishaekiSee also:

Synthetic language, Synthetic language - Synthetic and isolating languages, Synthetic language - Specimens, Synthetic language - Forms of synthesis, Synthetic language - Derivational synthesis, Synthetic language - Relational synthesis, Synthetic language - Degrees of synthesis, Synthetic language - Strictly isolating, Synthetic language - Rather isolating, Synthetic language - Rather synthetic, Synthetic language - Very synthetic, Synthetic language - Polysynthetic, Synthetic language - Oligosynthesis

Read more here: » Synthetic language: Encyclopedia II - Synthetic language - Forms of synthesis

Word order, in linguistic typology, refers to the order in which words appear in sentences across different languages. In many languages, changes in word order occur due to topicalization or in questions. However, most languages are generally assumed to have a basic word order. That word order is unmarked. That is, it contains no extra information to the listener. For example, English is SVO (subject-verb-object), as in I don't know this but OSV is also possible: This I don't know. This process is called topic- ...

Including:

• Word order - Sentence word orders
• Word order - Phrase word orders and branching

Read more here: » Word order: Encyclopedia - Word order

In order to demonstrate the "continuum" nature of the isolating-synthetic-polysynthetic classification, some examples are shown below: Synthetic language - Strictly isolating. Tahitian: Ua marere te manu na te ara means "The bird flew off into the distance." Virtually every word is a stand-alone morpheme. Synthetic language - Rather isolating. English: "He travelled by hovercraft on the sea." Largely isolating, but travelled and hovercraft each have ...

See also:

Synthetic language, Synthetic language - Synthetic and isolating languages, Synthetic language - Specimens, Synthetic language - Forms of synthesis, Synthetic language - Derivational synthesis, Synthetic language - Relational synthesis, Synthetic language - Degrees of synthesis, Synthetic language - Strictly isolating, Synthetic language - Rather isolating, Synthetic language - Rather synthetic, Synthetic language - Very synthetic, Synthetic language - Polysynthetic, Synthetic language - Oligosynthesis

Read more here: » Synthetic language: Encyclopedia II - Synthetic language - Degrees of synthesis

An analytic language (or isolating language) is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and considered to be full-fledged "words". By contrast, in a synthetic language, a word is composed of agglutinated or fused morphemes that denote its syntactic meanings. Analytic language - Features of analytic languages. Analytic languages often express abstract concepts using independent words, while synthetic languages tend to use adpositions, affixes and internal modifica ...

Including:

• Analytic language - Features of analytic languages

Read more here: » Analytic language: Encyclopedia - Analytic language

A language is a system of symbols, generally known as lexemes and the rules by which they are manipulated. The word language is also used to refer to the whole phenomenon of language, i.e., the common properties of languages. Though language is commonly used for communication, it is not synonymous with it. Human language is a natural phenomenon, and language learning is instinctive in childhood. In their natural form, human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for the symbols in order to communicate with others through the senses. Though there are thousands of human languages, they all share a number of prope ...

Including:

• Language - Properties of language
• Language - Human languages
• Language - Origins of human language
• Language - Language taxonomy
• Language - Constructed languages
• Language - The study of language
• Language - Animal nonhuman language
• Language - Formal languages

Read more here: » Language: Encyclopedia - Language

Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. The set of rules governing a particular language is also called the grammar of the language; thus, each language can be said to have its own distinct grammar. Grammar is part of the general study of language called linguistics. The subfields of modern grammar are phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Traditional grammars include only morphology and syntax. Grammar - Types of grammar. A prescript ...

Including:

• Grammar - Types of grammar
• Grammar - Development of grammars
• Grammar - Grammatical devices
• Grammar - Grammatical terms
• Grammar - Related topics

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Verb Subject Object—commonly used in its abbreviated form VSO—is a term in linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these constitutents in neutral expressions: Ate Sam oranges. The word order roughly corresponds to the order of symbols in (non-reverse) Polish notation or the S-expressions of the Lisp programming language. Examples of languages with VSO word order include the Gaelic branch of the Celtic language family (namely Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx), related Welsh (the only VSO ...

Read more here: » Verb Subject Object: Encyclopedia - Verb Subject Object

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist or linguistician. Linguistics - Dichotomies and language. The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes, the endpoints of which are described below: Synchronic vs Diachronic: Synchronic study of a language is concerned with its form at a given moment; Diachronic study covers the history of a language or family of languages an ...

Including:

• Linguistics - Dichotomies and language
• Linguistics - Levels of theoretical linguistics
• Linguistics - Diachronic linguistics
• Linguistics - Applied linguistics
• Linguistics - Contextual linguistics
• Linguistics - Individual speakers language communities and linguistic universals
• Linguistics - Prescription and description
• Linguistics - Speech versus writing
• Linguistics - Research areas of linguistics
• Linguistics - Interdisciplinary linguistic research
• Linguistics - Important linguists and schools of thought
• Linguistics - Representation of speech
• Linguistics - Narrower conceptions of linguistics

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Here is a list of the major theta roles, using the example sentence, Debra broke the window with a bat and Jack fell asleep. The agent (A) is whoever is intentionally carrying out some action. In the first example sentence, Debra is the agent. The experiencer (S) is someone/thing who experiences some state. Thus, in Jack fell asleep, Jack is the experiencer. This is because Jack is not an agent, in that he did not "fall himself asleep". One semantic test used to distinguish the ...

See also:

Theta role, Theta role - Major theta roles, Theta role - Relationship of syntax to theta roles, Theta role - Uniqueness

Read more here: » Theta role: Encyclopedia II - Theta role - Major theta roles

English is considered a non-pro-drop language. Nonetheless, subject pronouns are almost always dropped in commands (e.g., Come here); and in informal speech, pronouns and other words, especially copulas and auxiliaries, may sometimes be dropped, especially from the beginnings of sentences: [Have] you ever been there? or [Have you] ever been there? I'm going to the store. [Do] you want to come with [me]? Seen on signs: [I am/We are] out to lunch; [I/we will be] back at 1:00 P.M. What do you ...

See also:

Pro-drop language, Pro-drop language - Generalizations across languages, Pro-drop language - English, Pro-drop language - Finno-Ugric languages, Pro-drop language - Impersonal constructions

Read more here: » Pro-drop language: Encyclopedia II - Pro-drop language - English

V2 word order is primarily associated with Germanic languages, English being a notable exception. (French, a Romance language had a V2 stage, and Kashmiri currently does.) Other verbs are placed in the position dictated by the prevailing word order of the language: in otherwise SVO languages, such as Swedish and Icelandic, the verb is placed after the subject but before the object; in otherwise SOV languages, such as German ...

See also:

V2 word order, V2 word order - V2 effect, V2 word order - Classification, V2 word order - Examples, V2 word order - CP-V2 SOV, V2 word order - CP-V2 SVO, V2 word order - IP-V2 SVO

Read more here: » V2 word order: Encyclopedia II - V2 word order - Classification

Ergative languages are in contrast to nominative-accusative languages (such as English), which treat the object of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs. These different arguments can be symbolized as follows: O = object of transitive verb (also symbolized as P) Sintrans = subject of intransitive verb (also symbolized as S) Strans = subject o ...

See also:

Morphosyntactic alignment, Morphosyntactic alignment - Semantics & grammatical relations, Morphosyntactic alignment - Ergative vs. accusative, Morphosyntactic alignment - Milewski's typology, Morphosyntactic alignment - Bibliography

Read more here: » Morphosyntactic alignment: Encyclopedia II - Morphosyntactic alignment - Ergative vs. accusative

Some other areal features partially coincide with or extend beyond the CJKV area: East Asian languages - Morphology. Monosyllabic morphemes are typical of Chinese and Vietnamese, but also Burmese, Thai, Lao, and some other languages of mainland Southeast Asia and South China. They are not usual in Korean, Japanese, or Austronesian languages, though. Monosyllabic morphemes do not always imply monosyllabic words; Chinese is rich in polysyllabic words. Some polysyllabic morphemes exist e ...

See also:

East Asian languages, East Asian languages - CJK area, East Asian languages - Areal linguistic features, East Asian languages - Morphology, East Asian languages - Pronouns, East Asian languages - Syntax, East Asian languages - Etiquette, East Asian languages - Linguistic relationships

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The Centum-Satem isogloss discusses the treatement of the three dorsal rows reconstructed for PIE, *kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ (labiovelars), *k, *g, *gʰ (velars), and *ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵʰ; (palatovelars) in the daughter languages. A division into a Centum and a Satem group do ...

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Centum-Satem isogloss, Centum-Satem isogloss - Proto-Indo-European dorsals, Centum-Satem isogloss - Satem, Centum-Satem isogloss - Centum, Centum-Satem isogloss - Origins of the sound change, Centum-Satem isogloss - Literature

Read more here: » Centum-Satem isogloss: Encyclopedia II - Centum-Satem isogloss - Proto-Indo-European dorsals

In synthetic languages, words are formed by a root and a number of morphemes added to it. The morphemes might or might not be distinguishable from the root; they might be fused with it or among themselves, and they can also be realized as stress, pitch or tone shifts, or regular phonetic changes. Word order is less important than in analytic languages, since individual words contain more meaning. In addition, there tends to be plenty of concordance (agreement, cross-reference between different parts of the sentence). Morphology in synthetic ...

See also:

Morphological typology, Morphological typology - Analytic languages, Morphological typology - Synthetic languages, Morphological typology - Agglutinative languages, Morphological typology - Fusional languages, Morphological typology - Polysynthetic languages, Morphological typology - Morphological typology in reality

Read more here: » Morphological typology: Encyclopedia II - Morphological typology - Synthetic languages

Elamite was not related to the neighboring Semitic languages, or Indo-European languages, and although some call Elamite the "sister" to the Sumerian language, the two languages appear to be unrelated. David McAlpin's Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis postulates a genetic relation between Elamite and Dravidian languages, which then would have been carried from Elam to India by eastward migration. More recently, Sergei Starostin has criticized the proposed grammatical correspondences between Elamite and Dravidian as unconvincing, and p ...

See also:

Elamite language, Elamite language - Elamite scripts, Elamite language - Linguistic typology, Elamite language - Relations to other language families, Elamite language - Reference

Read more here: » Elamite language: Encyclopedia II - Elamite language - Relations to other language families

The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes, the endpoints of which are described below: Synchronic vs Diachronic: Synchronic study of a language is concerned with its form at a given moment; Diachronic study covers the history of a language or family of languages and structural changes over time. Theoretical vs Applied: Theoretical (or general) linguistics is concerned with frameworks for describing individual languages and theories about universal aspects of language; ...

See also:

Linguistics, Linguistics - Dichotomies and language, Linguistics - Levels of theoretical linguistics, Linguistics - Diachronic linguistics, Linguistics - Applied linguistics, Linguistics - Contextual linguistics, Linguistics - Individual speakers language communities and linguistic universals, Linguistics - Prescription and description, Linguistics - Speech versus writing, Linguistics - Research areas of linguistics, Linguistics - Interdisciplinary linguistic research, Linguistics - Important linguists and schools of thought, Linguistics - Representation of speech, Linguistics - Narrower conceptions of linguistics

Read more here: » Linguistics: Encyclopedia II - Linguistics - Dichotomies and language

Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science studying them is linguistics. Making a principled distinction between one language and another is usually impossible. For example, the boundaries between named language groups are in effect arbitrary due to blending between populations (the dialect continuum). For instance, there are dialects of German very similar to Dutch which are not mutually intelligible with o ...

See also:

Language, Language - Properties of language, Language - Human languages, Language - Origins of human language, Language - Language taxonomy, Language - Constructed languages, Language - The study of language, Language - Animal nonhuman language, Language - Formal languages

Read more here: » Language: Encyclopedia II - Language - Human languages