Linguistics Encyclopedia.pdf

Language universals
INTRODUCTION
The study of language universals is based on the premise that ‘underlying the endless
and fascinating idiosyncrasies of the world’s languages there are uniformities of universal
scope. Amid infinite diversity, all languages are, as it were, cut from the same pattern’
(Greenberg et al., 1966, p. xv). The theory of language universals specifies which
properties are necessary to human languages, which are possible, but not necessary, and
which are impossible, so that (Comrie, 1989, pp. 33–4) ‘over all, the study of language
universals aims to establish limits on variation within human language’. Since the study
of linguistic typology (see LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY) is concerned with studying this
variation, there is a strong link between the two disciplines. For example, the study of
language universals can help set the parameters for typological research: if it is
discovered that all languages have vowels (a language universal: see below), then it will
not be fruitful to make the presence versus absence of vowels a basis for the typological
classification of languages (Comrie, 1989, p. 38).
There are two main approaches to the study of language universals, one influenced by
the work of Joseph Greenberg, the second by the work of Noam Chomsky (Comrie,
1989, p. 2) The two approaches differ quite radically in terms of their attitude to evidence
for and explanation of universals, and since the Chomskian approach is the simplest in
both respects, I shall discuss it first.
THE CHOMSKIAN APPROACH TO
UNIVERSALS
Linguists influenced by the work of Noam Chomsky distinguish two kinds of universal,
formal and substantive universals (Chomsky, 1965). Some of these are features of all
languages, while others represent a set of features from which each language selects a
subset. For example, Jakobson’s distinctive-feature theory (see DISTINCTIVE
FEATURES) provides a list of 15–20 features, for which it is claimed that (Comrie,
1989, p. 15):
the phonological system of any arbitrary language will make use of no
distinctive feature not contained in the list, although it is not necessary
that any individual language should make use of the whole set (thus
English does not make use of the feature Checked).