Language variation and linguistic invariants
نویسندگان
چکیده
Human languages are diverse and so precise statements of common properties must abstract away from specifics of particular languages. We note several abstract and absolute ‘Type 1’ universals and present some new ones built on a notion of ‘structural invariant’ that applies equally to constituent structure and individual grammatical morphemes. Crucially, these universals may be realized in structurally diverse ways.
منابع مشابه
The Role of Sociolinguistics in Second Language Acquisition
Learning a new language also involves learning a broad system of norms for social relations.This study broadly showed how EFL learners’ speech act is conveyed from their nativecultures when they are communicating in English and demonstrated that there are somepossibilities of cross-cultural misunderstanding when interlocutors are engaged in the speechact of complimenting with native speakers of...
متن کاملPragmatic expressions in cross-linguistic perspective
This paper focuses on some pragmatic expressions that are characteristic of informal spoken English, their possible equivalents in some other languages, and their use by EFL learners from different backgrounds. These expressions, called general extenders (e.g. and stuff, or something), are shown to be different from discourse markers and to exhibit variation in form, funct...
متن کاملDynamic Categorization of Semantics of Fashion Language: A Memetic Approach
Categories are not invariant. This paper attempts to explore the dynamic nature of semantic category, in particular, that of fashion language, based on the cognitive theory of Dawkins’ memetics, a new theory of cultural evolution. Semantic attributes of linguistic memes decrease or proliferate in replication and spreading, which involves a dynamic development of semantic category. More specific...
متن کاملCross-Linguistic Invariants and Variation in Language Development
The goal of this chapter is to present some of the interesting and important aspects of cross-linguistic comparisons which can be made between the acquisition of Japanese and of English. We d o not attempt an exhaustive review of the literature (see, for example, Clancy, in press; Iwata, 1979; Murata , 1968, 1972; Sato, 1978 for reviews of the Japanese literature). We focus instead first on the...
متن کاملLinguistic Invariants and Language Variation
Since the publication of Noam Chomsky’s field founding Syntactic Structures in 1957, generative grammarians have been formulating and studying the grammars of particular languages to extract from them what is general across languages. The idea is that properties which all languages have will give us some insight into the nature of mind. A widely acknowledged problem to which this work has led i...
متن کامل