LANGUAGE MULT 10015 LANGUAGE LANGUAGES 4 UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES

LANGUAGE MULT 10015 LANGUAGE & LANGUAGES (4): UNIVERSAL LANGUAGES

Two basic questions Why do we talk so much? (Language usage) Why are languages so difficult? (Language systems)

Synergetic Linguistics Hypothesis 1: The most frequent words tend to be the shortest. (Principle of contraction)

Synergetic Linguistics (G. K. Zipf)

Synergetic Linguistics Hypothesis 2: The most frequent verbs tend to be irregular. (Principle of defeated analogy or fossilization)

Synergetic Linguistics TO FIT fit, fits fitted has fitted TO BE Am, are, is was been TO GO Go, goes Went gone

Synergetic Linguistics Languages differ not in what they can express, but in how easy it is to express it. Activity / language systems / thought Look for what people are doing with language…

What are people doing with language? Whorf “Hopi has "no words, grammatical forms, construction or expressions that refer directly to what we call 'time’. ” What epistemology could lead to this statement?

Genesis 10 Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham, Japheth “From these the peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language. ”

Genesis 11 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly. ” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. ”

Genesis 11 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. ”

Plato’s Cratylus (400 BCE) The “legislator” gave good names: goggulon round, rond, redondo Bad names: pyr (fire) “is probably foreign; for it is difficult to connect it with the Greek language”

Medieval languages of revelation Hebrew Greek Latin Sanskrit (Pali)

Enlightenment languages of concepts

Nineteenth-century international auxiliary languages Around 1900: 38 projects for international languages Volopük: in 1889 there were 283 clubs, in Europe, America and Australia. “Schleyer soon began to lose control over his own project […] he saw his language subjected to 'heretical' modifications which further simplified, restructured and rearranged it. ” (Eco) (Like sign languages - Auslan differs from British sign language and ASL, and is different in each state. )

Esperanto Created by L. L. Zamenhof (“Dr Esperanto”) Persecuted by Tsarists, Stalin and Nazis Two million speakers worldwide.

Esperanto akto (act) alumeto (match) birdo (bird) Cigaredo (cigarette) domo (home) fumo patro (father) patrino (mother) Patrinoj (mothers) vidi (to see) vidas (present) vidis (past) vidos (future)

International auxiliary languages The purpose of auxiliary languages is to enable communication of information: efficiency, simplicity, clarity. But do we really talk in order to catch buffaloes by the lake?

But what are they doing with the language? Grooming: higher apes looking after each other Laughter and singing: pre-language grooming Gossip: Verbal grooming Group formation for mutual defence When the group gets too big, the grooming function breaks down.

But what are they doing with the language? Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had “foster-mothers and nurses to suckle and bathe and wash the children, but in no ways to prattle or speak with them […] But he laboured in vain, for the children could not live without clappings of the hands, and gestures, and gladness of countenance, and blandishments. ” Chronicle of Salimbene (13 th century)

But what are they doing with the language? Why do we talk so much? To create group identity. Why are languages difficult? To protect group identity.

But what are they doing with the language?

Next Tuesday John Hajek on language families