Linguistic Typology Research Articles

Neural Correlates of Object-Extracted Relative Clause Processing Across English and Chinese

Abstract Are the brain bases of language comprehension the same across all human languages, or do these bases vary in a way that corresponds to differences in linguistic typology? English and Mandarin Chinese attest such a typological difference in the domain of relative clauses. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging with English and Chinese participants, who listened to the same translation-equivalent story, we analyzed neuroimages time aligned to object-extracted relative clauses in both languages. In a general linear model analysis of these naturalistic data, comprehension was selectively associated with increased hemodynamic activity in left posterior temporal lobe, angular gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex in both languages. This result suggests the processing of object-extracted relative clauses is subserved by a common collection of brain regions, regardless of typology. However, there were also regions that were activated uniquely in our Chinese participants albeit not to a significantly greater degree. These were in the temporal lobe. These Chinese-specific results could reflect structural ambiguity-resolution work that must be done in Chinese but not English object-extracted relative clauses.

Aging language and language typology, or why we should pay attention to cross-linguistic features when studying aging

Studies of language and aging have generally found similar patterns across users of different languages. However, there have been a few studies that have found differences, and these merit more attention. These differences can provide insight into the ways that the experience of aging differs among users of these languages, which can be useful information for practitioners. It can also uncover underlying differences in the target languages that researchers might not otherwise recognize, which could prove useful for theoretical investigations of language as well as provide ways to better inform directions for future research into language and aging.

Folklore narratives on the toponymy of the Russian Far North (Based on the Yukaghir, Even, and Yakut languages)

ABSTRACT We examine the historical toponymic system of the Russian Far North in the context of folklore traditions of Indigenous peoples of the North. Our methodology is narrative analysis, aimed at identifying the semantic features of toponyms, whose origins lie in traditional legends and tales. We treat toponyms as geocultural codes, which provide not only ethnocultural data but also geographic and spatial information. We present shared patterns in the naming practices of geo-objects among the Yukaghirs, Evens, and Yakuts (Sakha), and the ways that these practices are rooted in folklore. We also examine ethno-cultural differences in toponym naming among these three groups. We identify four broad strategies in the naming of geo-objects in northern regions: anthroponymic, commemoration of events, after sacred concepts, and after common household objects and concepts. In addition to linguistic information encoded by toponyms, it is also possible to establish extralinguistic information about the historical settlement of different peoples, contact among them, and their societal values. Such anthropological studies are relevant for onomastics and linguistic typology. Through the present study, we are able to gain a better understanding of Indigenous cultural development in the Russian Far North and the nature of inter-ethnic relations before written history.

The development of the Cognitive Assessment for Tagalog Speakers (CATS): A culturally and linguistically tailored test battery for Filipino Americans.

Filipino Americans are one of the largest Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations in the United States (US). Previous studies suggest that Filipino Americans have one of the highest incidence rates of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) among AAPI subgroups. Despite the expected increase in Filipino Americans with ADRD, no studies to-date have validated neuropsychological measures in the United States for speakers of Tagalog, a major language spoken by Filipino Americans. A significant barrier to dementia care and diagnosis is the lack of linguistically and socioculturally appropriate cognitive tasks for Tagalog speakers. To address this need, we developed and piloted the Cognitive Assessment for Tagalog Speakers (CATS), the first neuropsychological battery for the detection of ADRD in Filipino American Tagalog speakers. Based on evidence-based neuropsychological batteries, we adapted and constructed de novo tasks to measure performance across 4 main cognitive domains: visual/verbal memory, visuospatial functioning, speech and language, and frontal/executive functioning. Tasks were developed with a team of bilingual English/Tagalog, bicultural Filipino American/Canadian experts, including a neurologist, speech-language pathologist, linguist, and neuropsychologist. We recruited Tagalog-speaking participants of age 50+ through social media advertisements and recruitment registries for this cross-sectional study. We present the CATS design and protocol. To-date, the CATS battery has been administered to 26 healthy control participants (age 64.5±7.8 years, 18F/8M) at an academic institution in Northern California, United States. The development and administration of the CATS battery demonstrated its feasibility but also highlighted the need to consider the effects of bilingualism, language typology, and cultural factors in result interpretation. The CATS battery provides a mechanism for cognitive assessment of Filipino Americans, a population that has been underrepresented in ADRD research. As we move toward the treatment and cure of ADRD, linguistically and socioculturally appropriate cognitive tests become even more important for equitable care.

Metaphor power and language typology: Analysis of correlation on the material of the United Nations Declarations

Metaphor power and language typology: Analysis of correlation on the material of the United Nations Declarations

Euclide, the crow, the wolf and the pedestrian: distance metrics for linguistic typology

It is common for people working on linguistic geography, language contact and typology to make use of some type of distance metric between lects. However, most work so far has either used Euclidean distances, or geodesic distance, both of which do not represent the real separation between communities very accurately. This paper presents two datasets: one on walking distances and one on topographic distances between over 8700 lects across all macro-areas. We calculated walking distances using Open Street Maps data, and topographic distances using digital elevation data. We evaluate these distances. We evaluate these distance metrics on three case studies and show that topographic distance tends to outperform the other distance metrics, but geodesic distances can be used as an adequate approximation in some cases.

Wh & self : On correlating wh -conditionals and reflexive doubling

ABSTRACT: Chinese wh -conditionals hold a very special status in linguistic typology. Cheng and Huang (1996) argues that the construction can be properly analyzed by treating a pair of identical wh -expressions as syntactic variables unselectively bound by an implicit necessity operator. Over the years, this line of thinking has been challenged by various proposals based on the comparison with indefinites, correlatives, E-type pronouns and questions. This Insight article argues for the unselective binding approach to this particular type of donkey sentences by alluding to quantificational reflexive doubling. Our findings not only lend support to the idea that an operator-variable pair is built on a sentential scale in Chinese, but also call for a fine-grained syntax and semantics of the typological correlations between reflexives and wh -in-situ. 摘要: 汉语的疑问词条件句在语言类型学中有其特殊的地位：Cheng & Huang (1996) 认为，将一对相同的疑问词分析为句法变量，并藉由隐性必要 算子进行无择约束，即可正确分析这类结构。基于无定名词组、对接 关系句、E 型代词和疑问结构的比较，多年来此一思路受到了来自各 方的挑战。本文鉴于量化性反身重复的平行用法，指出无择约束仍是 这类特殊驴子句的最佳分析。此一发现不仅支持汉语以语句规模来建 构「算子─变项」配对的观点，更敦促学界对反身词和在位疑问词的 类型关联进行更为细致的句法和语义研究。

Filipp Fortunatov: An Underestimated Talent

This article marks the 175 anniversary of the famous Russian linguist Filipp Fortunatov and looks at his major findings. It is pointed out that in certain respects the scholar has contributed a lot to the linguistic science of his time. While working in the sphere of comparative linguistics, F. Fortunatov was actively involved in the studies of the Baltic-Slavic languages. In his contemplation of the sociological aspect of language, he forestalled the appearance of psycholinguistics. Concurrently, the scholar based his judgments on the then popular neogrammarian movement and the German psychological school. While analyzing the phonic aspect of the word, F. Fortunatov also used the provisions that would nowadays be deemed psycholinguistic. His contribution to the development of the theory of syntax and pedagogical ideas is undeniable, too. F. Fortunatov obviously deserves credit for having founded the Moscow linguistic school that fostered a constellation of talented scholars. Moreover, F. Fortunatov’s morphological classification of world languages is recognized as a most accurate one by modern typology. This classification was elaborated long before the linguists of the 20th century came to similar findings. The above mentioned achievements by F. Fortunatov seem to be misappreciated by Russian linguists let alone the Western ones. Russian textbooks of typology favor the morphological classification put forward by W. von Humboldt, although, as it is argued in the article, F. Fortunatov’s classification presents typological diversity of world languages more profoundly and precisely. If W. von Humboldt distinguished four language types, F. Fortunatov did five. His classification, except for minor terminological differences, overlaps with the five world language types singled out by scholars in the 20th century, in particular by V. Skalička. All this goes to say that the breakthrough in world language typology made by F. Fortunatov has really been misappreciated by modern linguistics and pedagogy.

A Narrative Review of Studies on the Syntax-Lexical Semantics Interface: With Special Reference to the Chinese Language

In microlinguistics, the syntax-lexical semantics interface is a key research area that focuses on the interaction between the lexical properties of predicates and the related syntactic structures. This paper provides an overview of the main studies in the area published internationally in the past four decades, categorizing them into three major groups of approaches (the Projectionist, the Constructionist, and the interactive). It also offers a critical reflection on the field and provides suggestions for future research. Two recent trends of research are highlighted: (1) empirical research with evidence from neurocognitive experiments; (2) emphasis shifting from the first language (L1) to second language (L2) acquisition with an eye on linguistic typology and special interest in Chinese, a language of typological significance. We hold that the Projectionist theory or approach could be used to explain the syntactic differences among verbs whereas the Constructionist may be more suitable for explaining the realization of different argument structures of the same verb. The recent interactive and dynamic approach to the syntax-lexical semantics interface seems to have the strongest explanatory power, which is supported by an increasing body of neurocognitive evidence. Further interdisciplinary research from such perspectives as linguistic typology, cognitive psychology and neurocognitive science may be instrumental in solving important issues including Baker’s Paradox and cross-linguistic variation regularities of verb lexicalization.

System of Semantic Universals in the Sound Space Lexicon

One of the central problems of typological linguistics is the identification and study of common features inherent in all or most languages. All natural languages have common and distinctive regularities. The common patterns established as a result of the intersection of linguistic features in different languages by means of the comparative method are called linguistic universals. The linguistic universals established in this way in different languages of different families belong to one of the central problems of typological linguistics, to universology or linguistics of universals. The paper is a continuation of the study of absolute universals that know no exceptions or are characteristic of almost all languages of the world. The aim of the study is the system of semantic universals. Using the comparative and descriptive methods, the material of the Indo-European and Ugro-Finnish languages, representing the lexicon of the sound space of 25 languages of different language groups and families, has been traced. The languages under comparison belong to different language systems, but they have absolute universal onomatopoeic semantic formations. The reason for this typology lies in the closeness of these universals to the natural sounds of the reality, which are imitated by different language systems. In all the languages of the world, the objective basis of the studied semantic universals is extra-linguistic sound, imitation of the phenomena of sound space, because they arise in the same sphere of semantics in all languages - noise, creaking, screaming, hitting - sound in general. The formation of semantic universals is determined by two factors: extra-linguistic, or universal, independent of a particular language, and linguistic, which manifests itself in different ways depending on a particular language. The reason for this typology lies in the closeness of such semantic universals to the natural sounds of the surrounding reality, which are imitated by different language systems. Consequently, their sound shells are related to the corresponding phenomena of objective reality through their semantics. The proposed study is a contribution to the development of the theory of universals or universology as a separate science, which at this stage of linguistics development is separated from typological linguistics.

The journey of the middle voice: from antiquity to linguistic typology

ABSTRACT The notion of middle voice finds its roots in classical antiquity, when it was first proposed by grammarians to describe a particular (set of) forms in the verbal paradigm of Ancient Greek. From medieval to modern times, the middle retained centre stage in linguistic descriptions of Latin and Greek, and in the 19th century, when combined with insights from Indian grammatical thought, it became a popular topic in comparative Indo-European linguistics. With the rise of linguistic typology and a more intense practice of language documentation, the reception of the middle voice in modern linguistics followed erratic and at times conflicting paths, engendering an inconsistency of usages that renders the term vague, if not useless. It is only recently that, in the wake of the discussion on the comparability problem in typology, a new comparative concept of the middle has been proposed, which might reconcile the millennia-long history of research on the topic with current needs of typology and language description.

Human self‐domestication and the evolution of prosody

AbstractHuman self‐domestication refers to a new evolutionary hypothesis about human origins. According to this view, humans have experienced changes that are similar to those observed in domesticated mammals and that have provided us with many of the behavioural, and perhaps cognitive pre‐requisites for supporting our complex social practices and advanced culture. At the core of this hypothesis is the claim that self‐domestication is triggered by (and entails) a reduction in reactive aggression responses. The human self‐domestication hypothesis has been recently used to explain how grammars became more sophisticated via a cultural mechanism. Nonetheless, less research has been done in the domain of phonology, even though animal evidence suggests that domestication favours call complexity too. In this paper, we hypothesise about the effects of our increased self‐domestication on human prosody. We argue for a progressive complexification of prosody that parallels (and might be involved in a positive feed‐back loop with) the complexification of grammar in response to a reduction in reactive aggression. We build on evidence of diverse nature, from language typology to brain function to language acquisition studies.

Why we need a gradient approach to word order

AbstractThis article argues for a gradient approach to word order, which treats word order preferences, both within and across languages, as a continuous variable. Word order variability should be regarded as a basic assumption, rather than as something exceptional. Although this approach follows naturally from the emergentist usage-based view of language, we argue that it can be beneficial for all frameworks and linguistic domains, including language acquisition, processing, typology, language contact, language evolution and change, and formal approaches. Gradient approaches have been very fruitful in some domains, such as language processing, but their potential is not fully realized yet. This may be due to practical reasons. We discuss the most pressing methodological challenges in corpus-based and experimental research of word order and propose some practical solutions.

PEMAHAMAN FA’IL (AGENT) DI KITAB FIQIH WADHIH JUZ 2 KARYA MAHMUD YUNUS DALAM ISLAM (ANALISIS SINTAKSIS)

AbstractThe Holy Quran And Sunah is the main resources in the Islamic Of Law, and the other resources of law comes from them. In the Islamic Of law has some resources of The Islamic Of Law, example is like the Islamic classic book or yellow book. In this article discuss about structures in Arabic to learn and understand the content of it. Structure in Arabic language is very complicated with many kinds of sentences and many kinds of structures and the changes on the word because of structure in one of it. The complexity is influenced by typology of Arabic language as the flektif language. Fa’il (Subject in Arabic) as the main investigating of learning Arabic Language or ilmu nahwu. This article discuss about kinds of Fa’il and the sign of it in Fiqih Wadhih Classic book part 2 created by Mahmud Yunus. This article is designed by qualitative research in library research, the data of it is about kinds of Fa’il and the sign of it , and the resources of data is from Fiqih Wadhih Classic book part 2 created by Mahmud Yunus. The method to collecting the data is documentation method and the instrument is data card and table of recapitulation card.The result of this research shows that in Fiqih Wadhih Classic book part 2 created by Mahmud Yunus, researcher found 570 kinds of fa’il. 570 data consist 546 shariḫ (explicit) dan 24 muawwal (interpreted), 112 dhāhir (apparent) dan 458 dlamir (personal pronoun), 26 muannats (feminime) dan 544 mudzakkar (masculine), 546 mufrad (singular), 1 tatsniah (duality) dan 23 jama’ (plural), dan 36 data tarkib idhafi (annexing)

Chinese Word Order in the Comparative Sino-Tibetan and Sociotypological Contexts

The present study discusses typology and variation of word order patterns in nominal and verb structures across 20 Chinese languages and compares them with another 43 languages from the Sino-Tibetan family. The methods employed are internal and external historical reconstruction and correlation studies from linguistic typology and sociolinguistics. The results show that the head-final tendency is a baseline across the family, but individual languages differ by the degree of head-initial structures allowed in a language, leading to a hybrid word order profile. On the one hand, Chinese languages consistently manifest the head-final noun phrase structures, whereas head-initial deviants can be explained either internally through reanalysis or externally through contact. On the other hand, Chinese verb phrases have varied toward head-initial structures due to contact with verb-medial languages of Mainland Southeast Asia, before reinstalling the head-final structures as a consequence of contact with verb-final languages in North Asia. When extralinguistic factors are considered, the typological north-south divide of Chinese appears to be geographically consistent and gradable by the latitude of individual Chinese language communities, confirming the validity of a broader typological cline from north to south in Eastern Eurasia.

Directionality in the psych alternation: a quantitative cross-linguistic study

Abstract Languages display global preferences for transitive, intransitive or underspecified roots in their verbal lexicon and correspondingly for the use of processes for deriving related concepts with different valency (cf. Nichols, Johanna, David A. Peterson & Jonathan Barnes. 2004. Transitivizing and detransitivizing languages. Linguistic Typology 8. 149–211). This classification is particularly relevant when applied to psych verbs, since variable linking is a widely recognized feature of this domain. This paper reports on the results of a larger typological study, involving 26 languages from 15 language families, aimed at investigating directionality in the psych alternation. In our data, most languages show preferences for one of the alternation strategies (augmented, reduced, undirected) which is then pervasive in their psych inventory, while the alternative patterns are marginally represented. Furthermore, the Indo-European languages of Europe stand out in being detransitivizing in the psych domain whereas transitivizing and underspecified languages do not show areal patterns. Moreover, we found a significant impact of alignment type on the occurrence of alternation strategies to the effect that reducing strategies are significantly less frequent in languages with ergative traits compared to languages without ergative traits. Our data also showed a positive effect of alignment in the undirected strategies meaning that undirected pairs are significantly more frequent in languages with ergative traits.

Oral Diadochokinetic Performance on Perceptual and Acoustic Measures for Typically Developing Cantonese-Speaking Preschool Children.

This study investigated native Cantonese-speaking preschool children's diadochokinetic performance, including rate, accuracy, and regularity. The second aim of this study was to examine whether language-specific patterns exist by comparing diadochokinetic rates with the average DKK rate for native English speakers. Sixty-four typically developing preschool children who were native Cantonese speakers participated. The diadochokinetic task administered to the children involved repetitions of monosyllabic, disyllabic, and trisyllabic words and nonsense words. The maximum performance of the children was compared by diadochokinetic rate (number of syllables per second), accuracy (percentage of matched production), and regularity (pairwise variability indexes, known as PVIs). Monosyllabic units were produced faster, more accurately, and more regularly than multisyllabic units. Word repetition showed higher accuracy and generally lower regularity than nonsense words but similar rates. Older children were faster and more regular (higher raw PVI of initial consonants) than younger children, but younger children performed as accurately as them. When compared with data from English speakers, the diadochokinetic rates of Cantonese children were generally lower. Developmental progression was evident in terms of rate and regularity. The distinctive accuracy and regularity patterns between word and nonsense word repetition suggest a clinical value for both stimulus types. Language typology plays a role in diadochokinetic rate, supporting the use of language-specific reference data in practice. The typical diadochokinetic profile obtained in this study could serve as a clinical reference for speech motor assessments.

LANGUAGES OF WISDOM. TYPOLOGY AND EXAMPLES FROM DIFFERENT TIMES AND CULTURES

The article focuses on wisdom as a particular ‘anonymous discourse’ in the various varieties that make up the typology of wisdom languages. The following overlapping types are distinguished: (1) wisdom sayings without justification – wisdom sayings with justification, (2) wisdom based on optimism and wisdom based on pessimism, (3) wisdom as intellectual cognition and wisdom as moral instruction, (4) wisdom from knowledge and as knowledge, wisdom that follows from knowledge of knowledge limits and wisdom as ignorance that follows from knowledge of ignorance. Examples are given from the Bible, European and Chinese traditions, past and present, and fiction, including Leo Tolstoy, Karl May, and St. Exupery

Separation events in Mandarin, Russian and Korean

Abstract Crosslinguistic studies on motion events have revealed that S-languages demonstrate finer-grained lexical categories than V-languages in representing motion manners/gaits. But these studies were restricted to the semantic domain of motion events and confined to a limited number of S- or V- languages. In this paper, we further investigate whether the association between lexical diversity and language typology is manifest in a similar way in the semantic domain of separation events by focusing on Mandarin, Russian and Korean. Our results suggest that: (1) Separation expressions support the diversity-typology correlation proved in motion expressions because the two S-languages Mandarin and Russian demonstrate richer lexical diversity than the V-language Korean; (2) It is further pointed out that apart from language typology, lexical diversity is influenced by multiple factors including lexical resources, conceptual salience, event construal, and event type; (3) Though typologically different, these three languages, in their lexical naming of separation events, are constrained by the biomechanical structure and follow the principle of prototypicality. Overall, this study opens up a new crosslinguistic perspective by showing how lexical diversity is typologically and linguistically driven.

A Grammar of Bisaya in Davao

This research presents a detailed linguistic description of the Bisaya in Davao language based on the examination of Basic Linguistic Theory. Three primary language consultants are native speakers of the language who translated and recorded word and sentence lists for accurate pronunciation. The analysis reveals the language's phonological, morphological, syntactic, and morphosyntactic characteristics. Based on the translated eliciting materials spoken and pronounced by the language consultants, there are three vowels and sixteen consonants in the phonemic inventory. Distinct phonological characteristics such as minimal pairs, diphthongs, and phonotactics are readily apparent. It demonstrates that the language has morphological characteristics and follows ergative-absolutive and verb Initial structure, precisely like other Austronesian languages in the Philippines. This description provides actual language documentation, additional research on language contact or migration, linguistic typology, and crosslinguistic study. This is vital for students and teachers in DepEd Davao in teaching the Bisaya in Davao as a mother tongue.