Theme: Methods of typological studies. Plan: What is typology? Methods of typology

-transformational method for identifying the nature of a linguistic unit in the source language or for determining the difference in the form of expression in the contrasted languages.

This method has a broad sphere of application. We can clarify relations between structures, reveal semantic similarities and differences between structures disambiguate ambiguous structures, reveal covert information from implicit relations, etc. Transforming identical Genitives we reveal their internal differences: Napoleon’s victory => Napoleon won a victory over someone (subjective genitive). Napoleon’s defeat => Somebody has won the victory over Napoleon (objective Genitive). A Soldier’s uniform => a uniform habitually worn by a soldier (descriptive genitive). Children’s bedroom => the room for children (destination Genitive). John’s arrival => John arrives, John arrived, will arrive (temporary Genitive)

By means of Transformational method we can disambiguate ambiguous structures:

The King’s portrait => The King has a portrait of somebody.

The King has a portrait of himself.

The King has drawn a portrait of somebody.

Somebody has a portrait of the king, etc.

Transformational method can interpret syntactic homonymy:

Vanessa is impossible to help. => It is impossible to help Vanessa.

Vanessa is anxious to help. => *It is anxious to help Vanessa.

John made her a present. => He made a present to her.

John made her a star. => He made a star of her.

Transformational method is more powerful as it reveals hidden implicit relations between the constituents of a sentence (The rain falls greyly => the rain is falling and it is grey).

By this method we can interpret double predicates: The moon rose red => the moon rose and it was red. Rose is an explicit predicate and is red is an implicit one. We can also describe a predicate of double orientation: He is said to have come; he to have come is a Subjective with the infinitive construction, he is a subject; is said to have come is a predicate of double orientation as to have come refers to the subject and is said refers to a subject beyond the border of the sentence => they say that he has come.

By means of this method we can analyze neutralization between coordination and subordination: He married early which surprised everybody => Him married early and that surprised everybody (a complex sentence with an attributive clause is transformed into a compound sentence, the semantic difference between them being neutralized).

By means of this method we can analyze predicative constructions with infinitives, gerunds, participles.

A simple sentence carrying a predicative construction with a non-finite form of the verb can be analyzed into a complex sentence with a subordinate clause where the formerly non-finite form is presented as a finite form functioning as a simple verbal predicate: He heard music coming from theroom inside => he heard that the music was coming from the room inside. He was happy with the whole universe to improve => he was happy because he was to improve the whole universe

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?

In the former Soviet Union the most developed and popular field of comparative study was comparison of Russian and national languages. The major material for comparison served numerous translations of Russian classics into national languages. Lexicography has also got considerable development. At that time the first national grammars were compiled basing on the grammar of the Russian language, e.g. the first Uzbek Grammar by Evgeniy Polivanov" used the system of Russian grammar for description: system of parts of speech, cases, numbers, etc.

Uzbek dialects

The Uzbek language is a member of the Turkic language subfamily of the Altaic family, spoken in Uzbekistan, eastern Turkmenistan, northern and western Tadjikistan, southern Kazakhstan, northern Afghanistan, and northwestern China.

Uzbek is the native language of the Uzbeks, spoken in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states. Uzbek belongs to the South Eastern (Central Asian) group of Turkic languages. The dialects of the modern spoken language have been influenced by some diverse dialect groups such as Karluk, Kipchak and Oguz.Uzbek dialects are conventionally divided according to phonetic features into two groups: the "O" group, which includes the dialects of such cities as Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and the surrounding regions; and the "A" group, which is divided into two subgroups according to the use of the initial consonants.24

The modern Uzbek literary language is based on the Tashkent-Fergana "0" dialect group. An old Uzbek literary language had emerged by the 13th century (by the 15th or 16th cc. according to some scholars); opinion is divided on its definition and designation. Uzbek phonology is marked by the absence of long vowels in word initial position. Secondary length results from the loss of consonant assimilated into vowels. Certain vowels may be lengthened for emphasis. The main dialects are lack of synonymic, harmonic vowel alternation and division of affixes into front and back. The grammatical structure of Uzbek, which in common with all Turkic languages is agglutinative.

Uzbek was written in Arabic script until 1927 and in the Latin alphabet from 1927 to 1940, when the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced. Since the mid-90's, Latin has again been adopted as the official alphabet.

References:

1. Ivan G. Iliev. On the Nature of Grammatical Case, Language Typology, and on the Origin of Cognate Objects and Subjects. [2]

2. Plank, F. Themes in Typology: Basic Reading List. [3]

3. Bickel, B. (2001). What is typology? - a short note. [4]

4. Bickel, B. (2005). Typology in the 21st century: major developments. [5]

5. "Linguistic typology" (PDF). (275 KiB), chapter 4 of Halvor Eifring & Rolf Theil: Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages1