Relativity, linguistic variation and language universals

Linking Meaning to Language: Linguistic Universals and Variation

To use natural language, speakers must map the participants in events or states in the world onto grammatical roles. There remains considerable disagreement about the nature of these so-called linking rules (Levin & Rappaport Hovav, 2005). In order to probe the nature of linking rules, we investigate verbs of psychological state, which demonstrate complex linking patterns both within and betwee...

Language-Relative Construal of Individuation Constrained by Universal Ontology: Revisiting Language Universals and Linguistic Relativity

Objects and substances bear fundamentally different ontologies. In this article, we examine the relations between language, the ontological distinction with respect to individuation, and the world. Specifically, in cross-linguistic developmental studies that follow Imai and Gentner (1997), we examine the question of whether language influences our thought in different forms, like (1) whether th...

Linguistic Relativity and Spatial Language

Programme Workshop on Linguistic Universals and Language Variation ( UniVar ) University of Hamburg 13 / 14 July 2007

s.......................................................................................................................... 5 Ezel Babur & Solveig Kroffke.................................................................................... 5 Adriana Belletti........................................................................................................... 7 Holger Diessel...................

Linguistic diversity and universals