PARTE ESTHERLanguages of the world:

Language typology and classification

Genetic classification. Language families

UNIT 1. LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC

1.LINGUISTICS.

2.LANGUAGE.2.1 What is human language?2.2. Some characteristics of human

language.2.3. Functions of language.2.4.Origins of language.

3. HOW IS LANGUAGE ACQUIRED?

UNIT 1. LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC

4.WHY STUDY LANGUAGE?5. LANGUAGES OF THE WORD.5.1. Genetic classification.Language

families.5.2. Typological classification.5.2.1. Morphological typology.5.2.2. Syntactic typology.5.3. Geographical classification.6. WRITING SYSTEMS. TYPES AND

HISTORY.

2.LANGUAGE2.1. WHAT IS HUMAN LANGUAGE ?

A language is a system used to communicate.

There are similarities and differences between human and animal communication.

Language seems to be as old as your species.

Nothing in the animal Kingdom even approximates to human language.

2.2. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. Not limited in time or space. Each language is both arbitrary and

systematic. There are no primitive or inferior

languages. Human language at all levels is rule

governed. Even the formal structures of language

are similar. The ability to speak depends on the

human l-shaped vocal tract, with the lowered larynx.

2.3. FUNTIONS OF LANGUAGE

Why…

EMOTIVE “emotion” Addresser

CONATIVE “commands” Addresse

REFERENTIAL “information” Context

METALINGUAL “code analysis”

Code

PHATIC “contact” Contact

POETIC “play, pleasure”

Message

Who…

2.4. ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE. Intriguing Questions:

50.000 África Theories

speculations

WHEN WHERE HOW

primitive

Bible

Otto Jespersen THEORY

“La-La”

Long –musical sounds

“Yo-He-Ho”

Rhythmic chants

“Ding-Dong”

Sounds-meanings

“Pooh-Pooh”

Interjections

“Bow-Bow”

Natural sounds

OhClose

Open

3. HOW IS LANGUAGE ACQUIRED?

The theory of blank slates versus the innate biological endowment.

For a long time it was believed that language was simply learnt. The presumption was that our minds at birth were blank slates on to which the rules of our native languages were written. Children learn by repetition, language is learnt behaviour.

CHOMSKY’S THEORY

The central question of linguistics is the nature of the innate biological endowment (Universal Grammar) which enables humans to acquire a language so rapidly and efficiently in the first year of life.

“Children seemed to be programmed to learn language, just as they seemed to be programmed to walk. To a baby no language is easier or more difficult than any other”

CHOMSKY’S THEORY

Children do not merely repeat what they hear.

Language teaching has never adopted a methodology based strictly on Chomsky’swork. However, this idea of creativity, has informed many teaching techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfpZFX2hAJQ

4. WHY STUDY LANGUAGE?

In this view the study of language is ultimately the study of the human mind.

One reason for studying language is that it is tempting to regard language, in the traditional phrase, as "a mirror of mind." By studying language we may discover abstract principles that govern its structure and use, principles that are universal by biological necessity and not mere historical accident, that derive from mental characteristics of the species.

LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD

Languages of the World

LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD

Is very difficult say how many languages there are in the world .

And is very difficult too, say two speech varieties are, different languages or different dialects of the same language.

It estimated that there are about 6.000 languages in the world.

LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD

CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGE

Classification of

Language

Genetic Classification

Typological Classification

GENETIC CLASSIFICATION

Based on

Linguistics similarities

Words and grammatical forms in common

GENETIC CLASSIFICATION

Language family

Broader sense

It refers to the largest spectrum of language for which a genetic relationship can be demonstrated

Narrower sense

It refers to languages which are more closely related

LANGUAGE FAMILY

Language family is a group of related languages that descend from a common ancestor called proto-language or primordial language.

LANGUAGE FAMILY

PROTO-LANGUAGE

Ancestral Proto-Language

If it´s not Known

Comparative Method: Comparing the languages of a

family

If it is Known

Only with inscriptions

PROTO-LANGUAGE

A language can´t be reconstructed.

The more ancient proto-language is the less we can know about it.

Commonly we only know a part of the language structure and vocabulary.

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN

William Jones

He was first noted that:

Greek, Latin and Sanskrit were related in a way that:

Proto-Indo –European: Reflecting the geographical

distribution of the speakers of this

language from India to Europe

Could no be chance.

They must have “ sprung from some common source, which perhaps no

longer exists”.

SIMILARITIES AMONG LANGUAGES

The similarities among languages can be result of…

A true historical relationship, of a chance overlap in

sound and meaning

A borrowing from one language to

another

EXPANSION OF PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN

Proto-Indo-European had split into twelve distinct languages (diagram).

Not all of Proto-Indo- European languages survived.

Proto-Indo-European contains words for a domesticated animals and crops, indicating that these ancient societies were agricultural.

5.2 TYPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION

This classification is based on the differences or similarities existing in languages.

In this case we will analyze the morphological typology and the syntactic typology:

5.2.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY

The morphology is understood, by a wide range of works, as the study of the structure of the word, therefore, focuses on the elements of a word, the relations between them, and the properties derived from its articulation in a result which is the word.

5.2.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY a) Isolating languages: the words in

these languages tend to be a single morpheme.

b) Inflecting, synthetic or fusion languages: These languages change endings and sometimes the internal structure of words to show grammatical relationships - tense, aspect, case and so on

5.2.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY c) Agglutinative or agglutinating

languages: These languages add suffixes and prefixes (as well as infixes) to the stem of a word to add to its meaning or to show grammatical function.

d) Polysynthetic or incorporating languages: languages which words are composed of many morphemes.

5.2.2. SYNTACTIC TYPOLOGY. According to the syntactic typology of

languages they are divided into different types on the basis of the order of the grammatical elements (subject (S), object (O) and verb (V)) in a sentence. Apart from the free word order languages, there are six possibilities:

• Subject Verb Object (SVO)• Subject Object Verb (SOV)• Verb Subject Object (VSO) • Verb Object Subject (VOS)• Object Subject Verb (OSV) • Object Verb Subject (OVS)

5.2.2. SYNTACTIC TYPOLOGY.

We also have to bear in mind that following one pattern as a norm doesn´t mean we can´t find a different one for specific purposes or special effects.

5.3. GEOGRAPHICAL (AREAL) CLASSIFICATION

It is based on linguistic similarities which have arisen from cultural contact between linguistic communities.

6.1. HISTORYo Origin of pictographic (objects) West Asia, EastAsia writing ideographic (ideas) Central America

o Symbols + sounds new writing systems (e.g. syllable)

o Cuneiform Mesopotamia clay

writing 1st written language was Sumerian reed stylus

o In 1600 BC, Chinese writing was developed independently.o Around 2000 BC, the first written alphabet developed by

semitic workers in egypt.o In 2600 BC, Sumeiran cuneiform script the earliest with

Egyptian hieroglyps coherent textso In 3200 BC, the first recognizable documents appeared in

Uruk.(sumerian sign sumerian word ═ picture of the object named by the word)

o Ancient Greek alphabet (vowels and consonants as separate symbols)

6.2.TYPES OF WRITING SYSTEMS

o Three categories: logographic, syllabic and alphabetic.

They can appear in the same writing system

A) Logographic writing systems The first known writing systems based on pictographic and

ideographic elements. Logograma(a single written character) represents grammatical word

many logogramas represent language writing Disadvantage many logogramas and memorization of their

meaning. Advantage the meaning is inherent the symbol so many

languages use the same logograms.

Ampersand “and” Examples of modern western logograms at sign @

percent sign %

units of currenc,$,€ Chinese is the most important and the only survisor.

B. SYLLABIC WRITING SYSTEMA syllabary is a set of written symbols

that represent syllables, which make up words.

A symbol in a syllabary represents a consonant sound followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone.

TYPE EACH SYMBOL REPRESENTS

EXAMPLE

Syllabic Syllable Cherokee

SYLLABARY SHOWN USING AN IMAGE:

CHEROKEE PRONUNCIATION

MEANING

D( FALTA) AMA WATER

C. ALPHABETIC WRITING SYSTEMS An alphabet is a set of letters each of

which represents a phoneme of a spoken language.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can be used to transcribe any language in the world.

MOON (mu:n)

HOMOPHONES

HEAR HERE

KNEW NEW

THERE THEY´RE THEIR