Methods of typological analyses.

The main method of typological studies is the comparative method. Comparative linguistics applies this method as well, but in that trend the elements compared are similar materially, which allows the scholar to establish their genetic affinity. Typology compares elements that are similar functionally.
e.g. The English, Russian and Turkish languages have affixes which form nouns with the meaning "the doer of an action". These are the English affix -er, the Turkish one -ci, the Russian -тель. They consist of different phonemes and have no common origin, but they have the same function in the language. So they can be studied in comparative typology.
Elements compared must have some common, similar (isomorphic) features in different languages.
e.g. All case inflexions express relations between an object and other objects, phenomena or processes. At the same time the elements of each language have some special (allomorphic) characteristics peculiar for this language.
e.g. Different languages have their own case systems with peculiar case meanings. Isomorphic characteristics serve as a basis for typological classification. They are called typological constants. One of typological constants is existence of the category of case. Using it, we can classify all languages into two groups: the ones having a system of declension and the ones lacking it. Difference between languages may lie not only in the fact of existence/non-existence of some element, but also in the place of the element within its microsystem.
When two languages are compared one of them serves as a prototype. For language students such a prototype is usually their native language. But the description of the English language by Russian-speaking students will differ considerably from the one made by French-speaking students. We can't get a really scientific, objective description in this way. A "neutral" language must be found, which can serve as a prototype for any language. Boris Andreevitch Uspenskiy suggested using isolating languages as prototypes because their structure is the simplest, and features isomorphic for all languages are explicit and distinct in them. But other scholars argue that the structure of isolating languages is not as simple as it seems, and some artificial prototype language must be constructed for the purposes of typological comparison.
Typological characteristics of a language revealed with the help of comparison of this language to a prototype language are correlated. They form a system. According to Georgiy Pavlovitch MeFnikov some elements and phenomena of this system occupy the leading position in it and the speaker subconsciously chooses such language means which are in harmony with the leading tendency. This leading grammatical tendency was given the name of determinant.
e.g. The Semitic languages (according to G.P. Mefnikov) have a tendency to grammaticalization. That's why verbal meaning is prevalent in word roots, consonants are used for expressing lexical meaning and vowels are used for expressing grammatical meanings. The Chinese language has a tendency to lexicalization. It doesn't express explicitly the information which is clear from the context (plurality is expressed only when not clear from the context).
Differences between languages can be quantified. A quantitative method was introduced by Joseph Greenberg. It is called the method of typological indices.
The most typical approach presupposes comparing languages "level by level", i.e. the phonological level of one language is compared to the phonological level of the other, then the morphological, the syntactical, the lexical levels are compared. However, similar functions can be performed by elements of different levels in different languages, e.g. I don't lend my books to anyone (phonology) Я не даю моих книг никому (vocabulary) I don't lend my books to anyone (phonology) Я не даю моих книг кому попало, (vocabulary)
Вы знаете, где магазин, (phonology) You know where the shop is. (Syntax) Вы знаете, где магазин? (phonology) Do you know where the shop is?

7. Typological characteristics of consonants in Eng. & Rus. The most common mistakes in articulating.

Consonants are pronounced when there’s some stoppage on the way of the stream of air, passing through organs pf speech.

Consonants are divided according to their: - manner of articulation, - place of articulation.

They may be explosive if there’s some block which is on the way of the air (p,t,k).

In both lang-s there are: - fricatives like (s, sh); - sonorants if the stream of the air passes through nasal cavity (m,n, in both lang-s); - glottal cons-ts (g); - rolled sounds (р – in Rus.); - lateral - when the stream of air passes through on both sides of the tongue.

They may be soft or hard)

Aspirates – that are pronounced with aspiration.

Consonants: - voiced (b,d,g); - voiceless (p,t,k)

Sounds ƞ w th h have no counterparts in Rus. that’s the reason of typical mistakes.

Palatalisation in eng is not necessarily.

absence of aspiration.

9. Typological characteristics of stress and intonation in Eng. & Rus.

Stress – pronunciation of one of the syllables with greater intensity. In different lang-s stress may be – fixed (falls on the same syllable in every word of the languages) or free. In Rus. stress may fall on any syllable of the word. It may change if we change a part of speech. In Eng. there are sometimes secondary stress (typical of Eng, but not Rus. e.g. underground).

Intonation is a complex phenomenon which is characterized by stress, melody, and pauses.

The main component is melody. It may be: - falling, rising, even (smooth ровный).

The main unit of intonation is sintagm which is characterized by a certain melody. Sintagms with falling tones are characteristic of statements in both lang-s. (he came , он пришел).

Sintagms with rising tone are for unfinished sentences, special questions in eng., In rus in sentences beginning with).

Even tone is used in both lang-s in introductory sentences which follow direct speech. (I will return soon, said he quietly).

In Eng, stress and intonation are very important when stress may change one part of speech into another. (‘convict – con’vict). In Rus. stress changes the meaning of a word and grammatical categories.

11. Types of morphemes in Rus & Eng.

The main unit of morphological system is a morpheme. It’s a part of a word with grammatical or lexical meaning. Lexical meanings are typical of morphemes, the main unchangeable part. Except the root there suffixes prefixes. We may speak about the steam if we add affixes to the root.

Flexions usually have gramm. meanings, affixation is typical of the majority of lang-s. Some lan-s. use more prefixes (in Rus. prefixes are more typical of verbs and suffixes in nouns).

There are aome common points in eng an rus suffixes from the point of view of their origin.

Some suffixes used to be separate words before they became morphemes (hood, dome,)– they used to be pronouns.

Many suffixes were borrowed from latin and greek. (ism-ist, extra,multy, poly).

In the process of the historical development the morphological structure may be changed. called this fact (simplification), decomposition –

Simplification is a gramm. process in the result of which a compound word loses the independent meaning of its component parts and they are excepted as a single morpheme. (in Rus. в-кус originally two morphemes, but now no prefix) (husband = house + bond simplification). Simplification is typical of borrowed words.

Decomposition

13. Grammatical and typological categories.

Historically take its origine from ancient Indian grammar by Panini. He described his native lang. Sanskrit. He was the 1^st to put a sharp dividing line btw words and nouns. This idea of classification was developed by ancient greek philosopher Aristotle.

When describing any gramm. struct. he described 3 genders. If there was an opposition they described grammat. category.

cat(unmarked) – cats (marked)

Typological categories differ from grammatical. We may speak about typological category even if it is not expressed morphologically.

Typ. cat is : - inter language; - inter level; - inter class

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1531