Schedule 72. StuTS

High Valyrian - Greenberg’s (1966) Universals and Chomsky’s (1981) Binding Theory

Greenberg (1966: 110-113) names 45 language universals for natural languages which - as language universals in general (Comrie 1989: 19) - can be categorized into absolute universals (1b) and tendencies (1a). Following Comrie (1989: 17), a second distinction must be made: Implicational universals imply that ‘a given property must, or can only, be present if some other property is also present (1a) whereas non-implicational universals apply independently to any other property (1b).

(1) a. Universal 1: ‘In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object.’
(Greenberg 1966: 110)
b. Universal 36: ‘A language never has more gender categories in nonsingular [sic!] than in singular.’
(Greenberg 1966: 112)

Chomsky (1981) proposes the Binding Theory (2).

(2) Binding Theory
Principle A
An anaphor must be bound in its governing category.
The term anaphor covers reflexives and reciprocals.
Principle B
A pronoun must be free in its governing category.
Principle C
An R-expression must be free everywhere.
(Haegeman 1994: 240)

Analysing High Valyrian, I hypothesize that
a. as an artificial language, High Valyrian violates at least some of the universals 1, 3, 4, and 5 – relating to the Basic Order Typology –, and the morphological universals 29, 31, 32, 34, 36, and 38 proposed by Greenberg (1966) for natural languages.
b. as a human language, High Valyrian is in conformity with the principles of Chomsky’s (1981) Binding Theory.

72. StuTS Hamburg 2022 Jannis Schwarzbach
jannis.schwarzbach@studium.uni-hamburg.de University of Hamburg

High Valyrian - Greenberg’s (1966) Universals and Chomsky’s (1981) Binding Theory

Greenberg (1966: 110-113) names 45 language universals for natural languages which - as language universals in general (Comrie 1989: 19) - can be categorized into absolute universals (1b) and tendencies (1a). Following Comrie (1989: 17), a second distinction must be made: Implicational universals imply that ‘a given property must, or can only, be present if some other property is also present’ (1a) whereas non-implicational universals apply independently to any other property (1b).

(1) a. Universal 1: ‘In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object.’
(Greenberg 1966: 110)
b. Universal 36: ‘A language never has more gender categories in nonsingular [sic!] than in singular.’
(Greenberg 1966: 112)

Chomsky (1981) proposes the Binding Theory (2).

(2) Binding Theory
Principle A
An anaphor must be bound in its governing category.
The term anaphor covers reflexives and reciprocals.
Principle B
A pronoun must be free in its governing category.
Principle C
An R-expression must be free everywhere.
(Haegeman 1994: 240)

Analysing High Valyrian, I hypothesize that
a. as an artificial language, High Valyrian violates at least some of the universals 1, 3, 4, and 5 – relating to the Basic Order Typology –, and the morphological universals 29, 31, 32, 34, 36, and 38 proposed by Greenberg (1966) for natural languages.
b. as a human language, High Valyrian is in conformity with the principles of Chomsky’s (1981) Binding Theory.

References:
Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris.
Comrie, Bernard. 1989, 2nd Edition. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology – Morphology and Syntax. Oxford: Blackwell.
Greenberg, Joseph. 1966, 2nd Edition. ‘Some Universals of Grammar with Particular Reference to the Order of Meaningful Elements’. In: Greenberg, Joseph (ed.), Universals of Language, 110-113. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.
Haegeman, Liliane. 1994, 2nd Edition. Introduction to Government & Binding Theory. Oxford & Cambridge: Blackwell.

Info

Day: 2022-11-04
Start time: 10:15
Duration: 00:30
Room: Wiwi-Bunker — Room 4044
Track: Typology and Variational Linguistics
Language: en

Links:

• iCalendar

Files

• High_Valyrian_-_Formatiert.pdf

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