Monday, December 03, 2007
Comparative linguistics
Example of comparative linguistics
When the content is that John left in a car belonging to some other person, the pronoun is used deictically. When the content is that John left in his own car, it is used anaphorically. Which type of use the pronoun will have depends on the particular circumstances of this sentence's utterance.
ANAPHORA AND
QUANTIFICATION IN
SITUATION SEMANTICS
By
Jean Mark Gawron and Stanley Peters
The above quotation is taken from the book published on internet under this link. I feel some necessity do discuss the problem from my linguistic point of view. In order to be able to understand the problem really, it is necessary to compare many languages. I speak only three, so I will deliver examples only in these three languages.
The problem of a sentence in English that goes like this:
/1/ He left in his car.
This sentence can have in English two different meanings; first, He left in HIS OWN car, and second, He left in SOME OTHER MALE’S car.
The problem here is typical for English, as those pronouns do not differentiate these possibilities.
In Czech language this confusion can happen only in colloquial language when the speaker makes the “Anglo-Saxon” mistake. In Czech this sentence has two different pronouns depending on the exact meaning.
A/ On odjel svym autem.
B/ On odjel jeho autem.
The pronoun svuj, sva, sve, is a reflexive pronoun saying that the subject of the sentence is the owner. Therefore in A/ He left in HIS OWN car.
The other pronoun jeho, jeji, jeho, expresses that the owner is somebody else than the subject of the sentence.
Now the whole linguistic stuff starts to be really interesting when we use something similar in German.
Consider the following two sentences in German language.
A/ Was ist ihr Alter?
What is her age?
B/ Was ist Ihr Alter?
What is your age?
In written language it is possible to differentiate because YOU and YOUR should be written with upper case first letter when addressing somebody politely, and using his or her family name when addressing, and it should be written in lower case when the same word is used for referring to HER AGE. In spoken language this difference cannot be made at the level of grammar, it can be guessed from the context or sometimes based on the emotion expressed in voice of the speaker.
In the German language the same also happens as in English
A/ Er furh mit seinem Auto.
This can mean in his own as well as in some other male’s car.
Czech language differentiates and German and English languages do not differentiate.
There are languages in the world where people do not use words for left and right or they do not use exact numbers, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. Their system of expressing position goes by north, south, west and east. Like in the sentence: “the cow is north of that sheep”. When they try to express some numbers they just say few or many.
The conclusion made by Prof. Daniel L. Everett, is that these people called Piraha, do not want to use these words. They also do not write, and when they are shown written form of some of their words they say it cannot be our word because we do not write.
Out of this one might conclude that English speaking people do not want to make the differences that can be made in the Czech language. Well, I do not believe that, this parallel most probably is not correct.
Some other explanation might be more probable. Some time back at a specific evolutionary step or level of language development of the three mentioned languages there just was no need for this differentiating and there was such need in the third language. One would have to go and study the development of these three languages and maybe the point in time might be found, where maybe even in English and German this differentiation was used or that in some point in the past the Czech language also did not differentiated between these two possibilities that means it had no reflexive pronouns.
It might be really interesting to find these points, if they exist, or if there is enough material for finding such points in time. It might help to understand the cultural development expressed in languages, as Steven Pinker says, that the language is the window in the evolutionary psychology, of person or nation, group of people speaking the same language, having the same cultural background of communicating information.
I have found this book in the internet and immediately the first problem struck me, because I believe that it is necessary to compare many languages. Seen from this point of view, this small paper of mine might constitute easy demonstration what comparative linguistics should and could be about. There are many more interesting problems in languages and they show how people think, behave and what really drives them.
The basic idea is that the informational environment and organism, in this case humans equipped with the ability to speak, interact. Language influences the environment, and the environment influences the language. But, based upon previous experiences and level of language, the same influences can lead to different outcomes in different languages and different cultures.
When the content is that John left in a car belonging to some other person, the pronoun is used deictically. When the content is that John left in his own car, it is used anaphorically. Which type of use the pronoun will have depends on the particular circumstances of this sentence's utterance.
ANAPHORA AND
QUANTIFICATION IN
SITUATION SEMANTICS
By
Jean Mark Gawron and Stanley Peters
The above quotation is taken from the book published on internet under this link. I feel some necessity do discuss the problem from my linguistic point of view. In order to be able to understand the problem really, it is necessary to compare many languages. I speak only three, so I will deliver examples only in these three languages.
The problem of a sentence in English that goes like this:
/1/ He left in his car.
This sentence can have in English two different meanings; first, He left in HIS OWN car, and second, He left in SOME OTHER MALE’S car.
The problem here is typical for English, as those pronouns do not differentiate these possibilities.
In Czech language this confusion can happen only in colloquial language when the speaker makes the “Anglo-Saxon” mistake. In Czech this sentence has two different pronouns depending on the exact meaning.
A/ On odjel svym autem.
B/ On odjel jeho autem.
The pronoun svuj, sva, sve, is a reflexive pronoun saying that the subject of the sentence is the owner. Therefore in A/ He left in HIS OWN car.
The other pronoun jeho, jeji, jeho, expresses that the owner is somebody else than the subject of the sentence.
Now the whole linguistic stuff starts to be really interesting when we use something similar in German.
Consider the following two sentences in German language.
A/ Was ist ihr Alter?
What is her age?
B/ Was ist Ihr Alter?
What is your age?
In written language it is possible to differentiate because YOU and YOUR should be written with upper case first letter when addressing somebody politely, and using his or her family name when addressing, and it should be written in lower case when the same word is used for referring to HER AGE. In spoken language this difference cannot be made at the level of grammar, it can be guessed from the context or sometimes based on the emotion expressed in voice of the speaker.
In the German language the same also happens as in English
A/ Er furh mit seinem Auto.
This can mean in his own as well as in some other male’s car.
Czech language differentiates and German and English languages do not differentiate.
There are languages in the world where people do not use words for left and right or they do not use exact numbers, like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. Their system of expressing position goes by north, south, west and east. Like in the sentence: “the cow is north of that sheep”. When they try to express some numbers they just say few or many.
The conclusion made by Prof. Daniel L. Everett, is that these people called Piraha, do not want to use these words. They also do not write, and when they are shown written form of some of their words they say it cannot be our word because we do not write.
Out of this one might conclude that English speaking people do not want to make the differences that can be made in the Czech language. Well, I do not believe that, this parallel most probably is not correct.
Some other explanation might be more probable. Some time back at a specific evolutionary step or level of language development of the three mentioned languages there just was no need for this differentiating and there was such need in the third language. One would have to go and study the development of these three languages and maybe the point in time might be found, where maybe even in English and German this differentiation was used or that in some point in the past the Czech language also did not differentiated between these two possibilities that means it had no reflexive pronouns.
It might be really interesting to find these points, if they exist, or if there is enough material for finding such points in time. It might help to understand the cultural development expressed in languages, as Steven Pinker says, that the language is the window in the evolutionary psychology, of person or nation, group of people speaking the same language, having the same cultural background of communicating information.
I have found this book in the internet and immediately the first problem struck me, because I believe that it is necessary to compare many languages. Seen from this point of view, this small paper of mine might constitute easy demonstration what comparative linguistics should and could be about. There are many more interesting problems in languages and they show how people think, behave and what really drives them.
The basic idea is that the informational environment and organism, in this case humans equipped with the ability to speak, interact. Language influences the environment, and the environment influences the language. But, based upon previous experiences and level of language, the same influences can lead to different outcomes in different languages and different cultures.
# posted by Dalibor @ 1:58 PM 
