About linguistic typology

Helle MetslangEstonian: typology and databases

1

Estonian: typology and databasesSzeged, April 2009

What is typology?

The study of linguistic patterns that are found cross-linguistically, in particular, patterns that can be discovered solely by cross-

2

that can be discovered solely by cross-linguistic comparison (W. Croft)

The classification of languages or components of languages based on shared formal characteristics (L. J. Whaley)

What is typology?

A typological approach involves classification either (a) components of languages or (b) languages

Three approaches:

3

Three approaches:1) classification of languages (isolative -agglutinative

– flective etc.; complexity of languages)2) typological generalization, language universals,3) functional-typological approach.

Classification of languages

Classical morphological typology:w analytical – synthetic languagesw isolating – agglutinating – fusional (flective)

4

w isolating – agglutinating – fusional (flective) languages

w polysynthetic (incorporative) languagesTypological cycle hypothesis:isolating → (reduction) → agglutinative →

(morphological fusion) → fusional →(morphological loss) → isolating → ...

Classical morphological typology

Rather dominating formal devices than characteristics of the language as a whole

Changes in the parts of language system,

5

Changes in the parts of language system, correspond to the direction of the grammaticalization changes

Among Finnic languages, Estonian and Livonian have changed to the fusion, Finnish is more agglutinative

Typology as the study of linguistic phenomena

Functionally and formally similar constructions, categories, units, oppositions etc. in different languages

6

“The ultimate goal for the typological approach is to unify the study of all types of linguistic variation: cross-linguistic (synchronic typology), intralinguistic (sociolinguistics and language acquisition) and diachronic (diachronic typology and historical linguistics” (Croft)

Typology as the study of linguistic phenomena

The typological investigations search for general types and distinctive features both among the categories of languages and their inter-relationships and in the framework of each single category. The categories

7

framework of each single category. The categories can be reduced to a limited number of basic types, just as the sources of these categories, i.e. lexical and grammatical devices, gradually changing their meaning and function and acquiring a new role in grammar, occur in a limited number of types.

Sources of similarities between languages

1) genetic – common historical roots (e.g Finno-Ugric languages)

2) areal – language contacts (e.g. languages of the Circum-Baltic area)

8

Circum-Baltic area)3) general tendencies of the development (e.g

grammaticalization clines: demonstrative →definite article), linguistic universals

4) occasional similaritiesLanguages are dynamic, stability and uniformity is

relative

Typology and databases

w Typology studies samples of languages to compare and make generalisations

w Compiling typological databases: needs the

9

w Compiling typological databases: needs the general typological classification of linguistic phenomena, collects and provides data for typological research. Databases may begin with small sets of data.

Typology and study of languages

w Description of single languages: uses the general knowledge about linguistic phenomena in other languages and languages in general and provides

10

languages and languages in general and provides information for typology

w Comparative linguistics: comparison of two or some languages, detailed studies, uses the general knowledge about linguistic phenomena and provides information for typology

Data sources

1) native speakers2) texts

11

3) descriptive grammars and other linguistic research

Native speaker elicitation

w impractical if large and diverse sample is desiredw artifical situationMethod of questionnaires (EUROTYP): questions to

12

Method of questionnaires (EUROTYP): questions to detect certain phenomena, informants are native linguists

w the categories under observation may occur in languages in unpredictable ways and conditions, and so they may be overlooked

w or the respondent discovers in that language such phenomena, which, in reality, do not exist

Texts

w more natural use of languagew restricted set of registers (narratives, literary,

sacred)

13

sacred)w some linguistic phenomena can not be foundw risk of wrong interpretationw consultation of native informant often

necessary, but often impossible

Language descriptions

w systematical and often exhaustivew differences in interpretations, concepts and

terms

14

termsw the facts which interest a typologist could

have been interpreted in different ways, from various aspects, insufficiently, or could have been ignored altogether

Data sources

w no source of data is perfectw all sources should be used

15

w native linguists!

Typology: activities

w EUROTYP (1990ies) – project of the typology of the languages of Europe

w Association for Linguistic Typology

16

w Association for Linguistic Typologyhttp://www.linguistic-typology.org/

the organization of conferencesthe publication of a journalthe awarding of prizes

Typology: journals

w Linguistic Typology (journal of ALT, editor Frans Plank)

volume 11-1 (2007) – special issue to

17

volume 11-1 (2007) – special issue to commemorate the journal’s decennial: overview and perspectives of typology

w Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung(editor Thomas Stolz)

Typological Database System (University of Amsterdam)

http://www.hum.uva.nl/tds/ Kees Hengeveld et al.Databases currently accessible e.g.w Amsterdam word-order database

18

w Amsterdam word-order databasew Anaphora typology database w Berlin Database of Intensifiers and Reflexives

Person-Agreement database w SPIN phonological segment inventoriesw StressTypw Syllable typology database w Typological Database Nijmegen

Typological Database System (University of Amsterdam)

Scheduled for integration e.g.w Graz Database on Reduplication

19

w Berlin-Utrecht Reciprocals Survey w Topic-focus database

The World Atlas of Language Structures

http://wals.info/ Martin Haspelmath et al.w A large database of structural (phonological,

grammatical, lexical) properties of languages

20

grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars)

w WALS makes information on the structural diversity of the world's languages available to a large audience

WALS

w WALS consists of 141 maps with accompanying texts on diverse features (such as vowel inventory size, noun-genitive order, passive constructions,

21

size, noun-genitive order, passive constructions, and "hand"/"arm" polysemy).

w Each map shows between 120 and 1370 languages, each language being represented by a symbol, and different symbols showing different values of the feature.

WALS map 49: number of cases

22

WALS map 78: coding of evidentiality

23

Matthew Dryer's Typological Database

http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/database

w Was originally a database on word order

24

w Was originally a database on word order features, but has expanded into various othe typological features. Data of over 1600 languages

Uralic Typology Database project

http://www.univie.ac.at/urtypol/conf.htmlw Kick-off conference in Vienna, September

2008

25

2008w Initiator Ferenc Havas, organizer Johanna

Laaksow Further meetings (Havas, Laakso, Anne

Tamm et al.)

1980ies: project Dialectologia Uralica

w Description of dialects + unified model for description of the Uralic languages and dialects

w Wolfgang Veenker. FU-5 in Turku 1980, symposium in Hamburg 1984

26

Hamburg 1984 w To classify and systematize available materials on a

common basisw To start with literary languages, to prove and develop the

method, further: dialectological dataw The project was not realized. Difficulties of international

cooperation in the Soviet time. Veenker died in 1996.

Dialectologia Uralica: method

In the paradigms every morphological form becomes a code of six figures (ABCDEF). Every category has its own position (A-F) and its values are marked by numbers.

E.g. the finite verb forms:

27

E.g. the finite verb forms: A – affirmation / negationB – moodC – voiceD – tenseE – number and personF – reference to the grammatical object

Dialectologia Uralica: a study of two languages

w Anu-Reet Hausenberg and Paul Kokla (1988): an attempt of the unified description of the verb forms of the Komi and Mari languages

28

of the Komi and Mari languagesKomi perfect (мунöмыд ‘you have gone’) and Mari 2nd

past form (тoлынaт ‘you have come’): both code 111420

A1 – affirmative, B1 – indicative, C1- active, D4 –language-specific tense, E2 – 2ns person singular, F0 – irrelevant to the object reference.

Estonian and typology

Estonian in typological studies e.g.EUROTYP, final volume of one theme group “Tense and

aspect in the languages of Europe” (Dahl 2000)

29

aspect in the languages of Europe” (Dahl 2000)Thomas Stolz “Sprachbund im Baltikum?”Östen Dahl & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (eds.) 2001,

Circum-Baltic Languages 1, 2.Petar Kehayov “An Areal-Typological Perspective to

Evidentiality: the Cases of the Balkan and Baltic Linguistic Areas” (Tartu 2008)

Estonian and typology

Descriptions of Estonian from the typological point of view e.g.“Estonian: typological studies” I-V, ed. by Mati

30

“Estonian: typological studies” I-V, ed. by Mati Erelt, University of Tartu, 1996-2001

Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung” 2009, 1-2: Estonian in typological perspective (guest editor Helle Metslang)

Some facts about the Estonian language

Estonian belongs to the Finnic languages. As a language as its own it evolved in the 14th-16th centuries.

31

16th centuries.w Ancient Estonian was influenced by various

Germanic, Baltic and ancient Slavonic languages. This is proved by multiple loan words and several shifts in pronunciation.

w German influence in the 13th-19th c.

Estonian dialects

w Standard Estonian has been mostly formed from the dialects of North Estonian.

w Mulgi, Tartu, Võro and Seto dialects in the

32

w Mulgi, Tartu, Võro and Seto dialects in the South Estonian language area

w The North Estonian language area includes the northeast coastal, eastern, central, western and insular dialects.

Estonian dialects: an example

‘Our nightingale has gone elsewhere this year’Standard Estonian: Meie ööbik on tänavu mujale

läinud

33

läinudSaaremaa: Meide ööbik aa seaesta maeale läinMuhumaa: Meite üöbik uo sieoasta mõjale läinNorthern-Virumaa: Meie kirikiut one tänävu mojale

lähändSetomaa: Mii sisas'k om timahavva muialõ l'änüq

Some characteristic features of the Estonian language

w large number of cases - 14 productive casesw no grammatical gender either of nouns or

personal pronouns.

34

personal pronouns. w no articles (either definite or indefinite);w differentiation between three quantities

Grammatical cases

Nominative ilus tüdruk‘(a) beautiful girl’

35

Genitive ilusa tüdrukuPartitive ilusa-t tüdruku-t

Semantic cases: interior local cases

Illative ilusa-sse maja-sse / majja‘into a beautiful house’

36

Inessive ilusa-s maja-s ‘in a beautiful house’

Elative ilusa-st maja-st‘from a beautiful house’

Semantic cases: exterior local cases

Allative ilusa-le tüdruku-le ‘to a beautifiul girl’

37

Adessive ilusa-l tüdruku-l‘by a beautiful girl’

Ablative ilusa-lt tüdruku-lt‘from a beautiful girl’

Other semantic cases

Translative ilusa-ks tüdruku-ks(to turn) ‘(in) to a beautiful girl’

Terminative ilusa tüdruku-ni ‘up to a beautiful girl’

38

‘up to a beautiful girl’Essive ilusa tüdruku-na

‘as a beautiful girl’‘Abessive ilusa tüdruku-ta

‘without a beautiful girl’Comitative ilusa tüdruku-ga

‘with a beautiful girl’

Cases in Finnish

w 15 casesw No terminative

39

w Old cases:Comitative: talo-i-neen ‘with his house(s)’Instructive: talo-inAccusative (7 pronouns): minu-t, sinu-t etc.

Finnish cases 1

Grammatical

nominatiivi - talo house

genetiivi -n of talon of (a) house

akkusatiivi -t - minut me

40

akkusatiivi -t - minut me

partitiivi -(t)a - taloa house (as an object)

Locative (internal)

inessiivi -ssa in talossa in (a) house

elatiivi -sta from (inside) talosta from (a)

house

illatiivi -an, -en, etc. into taloon into (a) house

Finnish cases 2

Locative (external)

adessiivi -lla at, on talolla at (a) house

ablatiivi -lta from talolta from (a) house

allatiivi -lle to talolle to (a) house

41

allatiivi -lle to talolle to (a) house

Marginal

essiivi -na as (temporary state) talona as a house

translatiivi -ksi becoming (change of state) taloksi becoming a

house

instruktiivi -n with (the aid of) (talon)/taloin with (a) house

abessiivi -tta without talotta without (a) house

komitatiivi -ne- together (with) taloineni with my

house(s)

Verbal categories 1

Category Estonian Finnish

Tense PresentPast

PresentPast

42

PastPerfectPluperfect

PastPerfectPluperfect

Mood IndicativeImperativeConditionalQuotative Jussive

IndicativeImperativeConditionalPotential

Verbal categories 2

Voice Personalimpersonal

Personalimpersonal

Person ja 1SG 1PL 1SG 1PL

43

Person ja number

1SG 1PL2SG 2PL3SG 3PL

1SG 1PL2SG 2PL3SG 3PL

Polarity Negation / affirmation

Negation / affirmation

Estonian and Finnish verb forms: examples 1

E ma ela-n ‘I live’F minä elä-n

I live-1SG

44

E ta ela-b ‘s/he lives’s/he live-3SG

F hän elääs/he live:3SG

E nad ela-si-d ‘they lived’F he el-i-vät

they live-PST-3PL

Estonian and Finnish verb forms: examples 2

E sa ole-d ela-nud ‘You have lived’F sinä ole-t elä-nytthou be-2SG live-PRTC

45

thou be-2SG live-PRTC

E ta ela-vat ‘s/he is said to live’s/he live-QUOT

E ela-ta-ks ‘one would live’F ele-ttä-isiinlive-IMPS-COND:PRS

Estonian and Finnish verb forms: examples 3

E te ei ela ‘you do not live’you NEG live

F te e-tte eläyou NEG-2PL live

46

E är-ge ela-ge (you) ‘don’t live!’NEG-2PL live-2PL

F äl-kää elä-köNEG-2PL live-IMP

E ela! ‘live!’F elä!

live

NordLing PhD course: Databases and typology, Tartu, 13.-18.09.09

NordLing (Balto-Scandinavian network of graduate schools in language and linguistic studies) and Graduate School of Linguistcs and Language Technology (University of Tartu)

The aim of the course is to give an overview of existing

47

The aim of the course is to give an overview of existing typological databases, their use and creation, and of the typology and universals in general and of some categories (agreement, case, verbal categories, clause arguments, etc.) with special attention on the languages of the languages of the Nordic and Baltic area.

Lectures, workshops and seminars. In the seminars, the writings of participants will be discussed. 2-4 ECTS.

PhD course: Databases and typology

Teachers:Alexis Dimitriadis (University of Amsterdam)Seppo Kittilä (University of Helsinki)

48

Seppo Kittilä (University of Helsinki)Matti Miestamo (University of Helsinki)Edith Moravcsik (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)Frans Plank (University of Konstanz)Menzo Windhouwer (University of Amsterdam)

http://www.nordling.cc/

References 1

Croft, William 2006, Typology and universals. Second edition. (Cambridge textbooks in linguistics.) Cambridge University Press.

Dahl, Östen (ed.) 2000, Tense and aspect in the languages of

49

Dahl, Östen (ed.) 2000, Tense and aspect in the languages ofEurope. (Empirical approaches to language typology.Eurotyp 20-6.) Mouton de Gruyter.

Dahl, Östen & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (eds.) 2001, Circum-Baltic Languages, vol. 1, 2. (Studies in Language Companion Series 54, 55.) Amsterdam, Benjamins.

Erelt, Mati 2002, Hierarhiatest tüpoloogias. - Teoreetiline keeleteadus Eestis. (Tartu Ülikooli üldkeeleteaduse õppetooli toimetised 4.) Tartu 2002: 34-40.

References 2

Erelt, Mati (ed.) 2003, Estonian Language. (Linguistica Uralica. Supplementary Series. Volume. 1).Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers.

Grünthal, Riho 2000, Typological characteristics of the Finnic languages: a reappraisal. – Laakso, Johanna (ed.), Facing Finnic. Some challenges

50

a reappraisal. – Laakso, Johanna (ed.), Facing Finnic. Some challenges to historical and contact linguistics. (Castrenianumin toimitteita 59.) Helsinki, 31-63

Hauzenberg, Anu-Reét & Paul’ Kokla 1988, Unificirovannaja sistema opisanija dialektov v primenenii k komi i marijskim glagol’nym formam. – Soviet finno-ugric studies XXIV: 19-26.

Kehayov, Petar 2008, An Areal-Typological Perspective to Evidentiality: the Cases of the Balkan and Baltic Linguistic Areas. Tartu, University of Tartu Press

References 3

Klaas, Birute 1997, The quotative mood in the Baltic Sea areal. - Estonian: typological studies II. Ed. by Mati Erelt. (Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 8.) Tartu: 73-97

51

Metslang, Helle 1996, The developments of the futures in the Finno-Ugric languages. - Estonian: Typological Studies I. Ed. by M. Erelt. (Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 4.) Tartu: 123-144.

Moskovoj, A. 1989, Zur typologischen Charakteristik der estnischen Fragepartikel kas. - SFU 2, lk. 84-90.

Rätsep, Huno 1989, Eesti keele tekkimise lugu. – Akadeemia 1989, 1503-1524

References 4

Stolz, Thomas 1991, Sprachbund im Baltikum? Estnisch und Lettisch im Zentrum einer sprachlichen Konvergenzlandschaft. Bochum: N. Brockmeyer

Sulkala, Helena 1996, Expression of aspectual meanings in

52

Sulkala, Helena 1996, Expression of aspectual meanings in Finnish and Estonian. - Estonian: Typological Studies I. Ed. by M. Erelt. (Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 4.) Tartu: 165-225.

Sulkala, Helena & Merja Karjalainen 1992, Finnish. London: Routledge.

Sutrop, Urmas 1999, Entspricht Estnisch dem agglutinierenden Sprachtypus? - Estonian: typological studies II. Ed. by Mati Erelt. (Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 8.): 199-219.

References 5

Sutrop, Urmas 2004, Estonian language. Tallinn, Estonian Institute

Tauli, Valter 1984, Is the structural change of languages really predestined? - Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, Neue Folge, Bd.

53

predestined? - Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, Neue Folge, Bd. 4: 25-35.

The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. http://wals.info/ (19.04.09)

Veenker, Wolfgang 1985, Vorschlag für ein morphologische Beschreibungsmodell der uralischen Sprachen und Dialekte. – W. Veenker (Hrsg.) : 57-66.

References 6

Veenker, Wolfgang (Hrsg.) 1985, Dialectologia Uralica. Materialen der ersten intoernationalen Symposium zur Dialektologie der uralischen Sprachen 4.-7. September 1984 in Hamburg. (Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica

54

in Hamburg. (Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica 20.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz

WALS = Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew, Gil, David; Comrie, Bernhard (eds.) 2005, The World atlas of language structures. Oxford: Oxford University press.

Whaley, Lindsay J. 1997, Introduction to typology. The unity and diversity of language. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks - London - New Delhi.