A linguistic universal is a pattern that occurs systematically across natural languages, potentially true for all of them. For example, All languages have nouns and verbs, or If a language is spoken, it has consonants and vowels. Research in this area of linguistics is closely tied to the study of linguistic typology, and intends to reveal generalizations across languages, likely tied to cognition, perception, or other abilities of the mind. The field originates from discussions influenced by Noam Chomsky's proposal of a Universal Grammar, but was largely pioneered by the linguist Joseph Greenberg, who derived a set of forty-five basic universals, mostly dealing with syntax, from a study of some thirty languages.
Though there has been significant research into linguistic universals, in more recent time some linguists, including Nicolas Evans and Stephen C. Levinson, have argued against the existence of absolute linguistic universals that are shared across all languages. These linguists cite problems such as ethnocentrism amongst cognitive scientists, and thus linguists, as well as insufficient research into all of the world's languages in discussions related to linguistic universals, instead promoting these similarities as simply strong tendencies.
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A linguisticuniversal is a pattern that occurs systematically across natural languages, potentially true for all of them. For example, All languages have...
above]). Some students of universal grammar study a variety of grammars to extract generalizations called linguisticuniversals, often in the form of "If...
As the emphasis of the universal nature of human language and cognition developed during the 1960s, the idea of linguistic relativity became disfavored...
facilitate cross-linguistic evaluation, querying or annotation of language data. At a theoretical level, the existence of universal categories in human...
vocabulary; and theoretical typology, which aims to explain the universal tendencies. Linguistic typology is contrasted with genealogical linguistics on the...
The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (known also as the Barcelona Declaration) is a document signed by the International PEN Club, and several...
Cultural universal, a trait common to all cultures History of Christian universalism International Council of Unitarians and Universalists Linguistic universal...
Semanticity is one of Charles Hockett's 16 design features of language. Semanticity refers to the use of arbitrary or nonarbitrary signals to transmit...
vocabulary (lexicon), and linguistic norms (interlanguage pragmatics). By describing how learner language conforms to universallinguistic norms, interlanguage...
for studying the semantic processes in particular languages. This is a linguistic theory that views the formation of phrase structure by analogy to function...
South America, Australia, Finland ...now, that is a true musico-linguisticuniversal." There are two types of pentatonic scales: those with semitones...
is a British-born linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguisticuniversals and on Caucasian languages. Comrie was born in Sunderland...
grammar, which studies the universal properties of language, historical research today still remains a significant field of linguistic inquiry. Subfields of...
antecedent always preceding its consequent for this construction is a linguisticuniversal. Heptapod A also utilizes center embedding in sentences, which involves...
class, the latter referencing them as individual units. Greenberg's linguisticuniversal #35 states that no language is purely singulative-collective in the...
Paul and Martina Wiltschko, called Determiners: Universals and variation on cross-linguisticuniversals and variation in the syntax of determiners. Ghomeshi...
early 1920s. Golden Raspberry Awards, which are named after the term Linguisticuniversal The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town Flatulence humor...
link between biology and specific human language structures or linguisticuniversals. For lack of a breakthrough in the field, there have been numerous...
though neither expressed nor strictly implied Implicational universal or linguisticuniversal, a pattern that occurs systematically across natural languages...
native language. In The Blank Slate (2002), Pinker similarly cites the linguistic capabilities of children, relative to the amount of direct instruction...
linguistics, linguistic competence is the system of unconscious knowledge that one knows when they know a language. It is distinguished from linguistic performance...
educational rights. Important documents for linguistic rights include the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (1996), the European Charter for Regional...
linguistics insofar as they allow us to deduce the universal underlying rules from which the observable linguistic variability is generated. In opposition to...
by filling open parameters (a set of universal grammar principles) that adapt as the child encounters linguistic data. The minimalist program, initiated...
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