elizabeth m. riddle
"I argue that although isolating Asian languages such as Hmong, Mandarin Chinese, and Thai may be economical in terms of inflection, they exhibit significantly more complex lexical patterns of particular types than more synthetic lanaguges such as Polish and English in like contexts."
non-inflecting languages have lots of complexity in other ways.
Showing posts with label typology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label typology. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2009
linguistic typology and sinospheric languages
elizabeth riddle and herbert stahlke
Why are West African and SE Asian languages so similar?
Overspecifying languages: subordination, polysyllabic words, derivational affixes, high degree of inflection
Underspecifying languages: juxtaposition, monosyllabic words, compounding, no inflection, verb classes blend together
Why are West African and SE Asian languages so similar?
Overspecifying languages: subordination, polysyllabic words, derivational affixes, high degree of inflection
Underspecifying languages: juxtaposition, monosyllabic words, compounding, no inflection, verb classes blend together
language typology and language transfer
william e. rutherford
1983
ESL students trying to make topic-comment constructions:
"1a. These ways almost can classify two types.
3. A man choose a wife is a man's business [level 3]
5. Choosing a husband or wife in my country is quite an interesting thing [level 5]"
Rutherford found that Mandarin L1 students produced 10% topic-comment constructions, which supports what Li & Thompson argued for Chinese.
Topic-Comment:
10a. "In my country man and woman chooses husband or wife 0 is very simple [level 3]"
Uses "this as subject:
10b. "Choose a good husband or wife, this is very important problem for everybody [level 4]"
The way an English speaker would mark a subject:
10c"...choosinga husband or a wife is one of the essentials of life [level 5]"
13a1. "The streat of in the United States have a many many road..
2. In my country hasn't army, navy, and air force.
b1. Japan, just like other countries, we have distinctive history."
1983
ESL students trying to make topic-comment constructions:
"1a. These ways almost can classify two types.
3. A man choose a wife is a man's business [level 3]
5. Choosing a husband or wife in my country is quite an interesting thing [level 5]"
Rutherford found that Mandarin L1 students produced 10% topic-comment constructions, which supports what Li & Thompson argued for Chinese.
Topic-Comment:
10a. "In my country man and woman chooses husband or wife 0 is very simple [level 3]"
Uses "this as subject:
10b. "Choose a good husband or wife, this is very important problem for everybody [level 4]"
The way an English speaker would mark a subject:
10c"...choosinga husband or a wife is one of the essentials of life [level 5]"
13a1. "The streat of in the United States have a many many road..
2. In my country hasn't army, navy, and air force.
b1. Japan, just like other countries, we have distinctive history."
Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language
charles n. li and sandra a. thompson
1975
subject-prominent lanaguges: English
Topic-Prominent Languages: Chinese
Subject-Prominent and Topic-Prominent Langauges: Japanese, Korean
Neither Subject nor Topic Prominent Languages: Tagalog
Mandarin (TP):
"here very hot
'It is hot in here.'
possible this-CLASS war will soon end aspect
'It is possible that this war will soon end.'"
double subject constructions:
Japanese:
"fish-TOPIC red snapper SUBJ delicious
'Fish (topic), red snapper is delicious
Korean:
airplane-top. 747-subj. big-stative
'Airplanes (topic), the 747 is big.'
Mandarin:
that tree leaves big
'That tree (topic) the leaves are big.'"
1975
subject-prominent lanaguges: English
Topic-Prominent Languages: Chinese
Subject-Prominent and Topic-Prominent Langauges: Japanese, Korean
Neither Subject nor Topic Prominent Languages: Tagalog
Mandarin (TP):
"here very hot
'It is hot in here.'
possible this-CLASS war will soon end aspect
'It is possible that this war will soon end.'"
double subject constructions:
Japanese:
"fish-TOPIC red snapper SUBJ delicious
'Fish (topic), red snapper is delicious
Korean:
airplane-top. 747-subj. big-stative
'Airplanes (topic), the 747 is big.'
Mandarin:
that tree leaves big
'That tree (topic) the leaves are big.'"
the acquisition of relative clauses in relation to language typology
bernard comrie
noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH)
subject>direct object>other object>genitive/possessor
"...for native speakers of European languages learning japanese or korean as a second lanaguge (L2), the articles in this collection suggest surprisingly little transfer..."
"RCS in Japanese and Korean are so different structurally form their European translation equivalents...that learners simply treat them as a new strcture to be learned rather than as variants of any structure familar to them form their native language."
"Each position on the NPAH is justified empirically by the existence of at least one languge that relativizes on that position but on no lower position."
noun phrase accessibility hierarchy (NPAH)
subject>direct object>other object>genitive/possessor
"...for native speakers of European languages learning japanese or korean as a second lanaguge (L2), the articles in this collection suggest surprisingly little transfer..."
"RCS in Japanese and Korean are so different structurally form their European translation equivalents...that learners simply treat them as a new strcture to be learned rather than as variants of any structure familar to them form their native language."
"Each position on the NPAH is justified empirically by the existence of at least one languge that relativizes on that position but on no lower position."
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