Linguistics Final

Pain and Suffering

Analytic

Most words are simple; each grammatical element is shown as a distinct word (Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.)

Synthetic

Allow complex word forms

3 types: Agglutinative, Fusional, Polysynthetic

Agglutinative Languages

A word consists of fully segmentable morphemes; boundary between morphemes is clear

Fusional Languages

Many grammatical elements are not clearly segmentable; grammatical affixes have multiple grammatical features (Polish, Spanish, French, etc.)

Polysynthetic Languages

A word is composed of many bound morphemes; a whole sentence can be expressed by a word (Mohawk, Chukchi, Ainu, etc.)

Constituency tests

• Replacement test

• Pronominalization test

• Coordination test

Replacement test

replacing a string of words with a proform (e.g., a pronoun, pro-verb, or pro-adjective) to determine if the string forms a constituent

Pronominalization test

substituting a phrase with a pronoun

Coordination test

attempting to coordinate it with another constituent using a coordinator like "and" or "but"

Head:

the word that determines the syntactic category of that phrase

Initial and Head: 

Final parameter:

Satem branch and Centum languages

Two phonological subgroups based on the treatment of PIE palatovelar consonants. Satem (e.g., Sanskrit, Slavic) turns palatovelars into sibilants; Centum (e.g., Latin, Greek) merges them with velars.

The theme vowel in Proto-Indo-European

A linking vowel (e/o) used between root and suffixes in verb and noun paradigms to mark grammatical features.

History of Proto-Indo-European

PIE was spoken around 4500–2500 BCE, likely in the Pontic-Caspian steppe; it diversified into many branches (e.g., Germanic, Indo-Iranian).

Know in detail the Indo

Likely refers to Indo-Iranian, a major branch including Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian; retains many archaic features and developed complex verbal morphology.

Proto-Indo-European as a fusional language

Words in PIE carry multiple grammatical meanings (tense, person, number) through single morphemes.

Nominative-accusative case system in Indo-European languages:

Subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs share the same form (nominative); direct objects take a separate form (accusative).

Grimm’s Law

How Proto-Indo-European stop constants change as they evolve into Proto-Germanic

Comparative Method

Technique that linguists use to deduce the forms of an ancestral language

Nominative

the grammatical case used for nouns and pronouns that function as the subject of a sentence

Accusative:

marks the direct object of a verb, indicating the entity that is directly acted upon by the verb

Dative

a grammatical case that marks the indirect object of a verb, or the recipient or beneficiary of an action

Genitive

a grammatical form used to indicate possession or a relationship between two nouns

Locative

used to indicate static spatial relationships and to talk about thoughts, discussions and nuanced ideas

Instrumental

a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action

Northern Cities vowel change (ongoing change):

an ongoing chain vowel shift in the American English spoken in the Great Lakes region