Ling 001: Linguistic Typology

Relating this to the central point

• Remember in addition that there is a central argument that we began with
• Language is not a cultural invention; it is something that the human brain develops along the lines of walking
• Language learners are guided in learning the (abstract!) rules of how language is structured by innate linguistic competence
• In an abstract sense, all languages are ‘the same’, that is, they accomplish the same things and are all reflections of this innate endowment

Further considerations and questions

• At the same time, we know that languages differ from one another (i.e. when we don’t make the abstraction above)
• Question: How do we talk about these differences in light of the hypothesis that there is something universal and innate to human language?

Plan

• Review some facts about languages of the world
• Examine different areas in which languages differ
• Talk about the nature of such differences