Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

72 Sections
framework of the ToBI model of intonation. In this paper we analyse yes-no questions
following Grice and Savino’s (2003) and Payà and Vanrell (2005) basic distinction between
questions asking for new information (QUERY) and those asking for given information
(CHECK). We ask the following research questions: (i), is there any phonological differences
between QUERY questions in the three intonation systems investigated? (ii) are there any
phonological differences according to information structural function (QUERY versus
CHECK)? The results will indicate whether there are significant differences in the
intonational patterns used in Spanish, English and Spanish learners’ English interlanguage or
whether there are common patterns available in these three language systems. These results
are discussed in relation to theories of information structure and conversational analysis.
Some universal trends in the distribution of labial consonants
in world languages
Tambovtsev, Yuri
Novosibirsk Pedagog. University
yutamb@mail.ru
The aim of this research is to establish the exact limits, in which the labial consonants
function. That is, the frequency of occurrence in different language families is studied. It
allows us to find out the universal trends in the distribution of labial consonants in world
languages. Most all of world languages use labial consonants. The problem is to find out the
overall natural foundation why some languages do not use as many labial consonants in their
speech chains as the others. There arises a question if the use of labial consonants in the
speech chain of any language is determined by some linguistic factors. Or the occurrence of
labial consonants is not determined by the system of a particular language. That is, it is
determined by the work of the articulation apparatus of man. It also can be that the
articulation habits resist the particular system of a language. It may, very well, be, that the
system of a language requires more labials in its speech chain, but it is resisted by the work of
the articulation tract. The investigation of the use of labial consonants may enlighten the
limits, in which the labial consonants may occur. It may explain the force, which makes the
human language use labials (cf. Tambovtsev, 2003). To my mind, there exists a universal
potential to use labials, though in every concrete language this potential embodies itself to a
different degree, because of the press of the phonological system of this or that languages.
Therefore, this potential expresses itself differently in different language branches, subgroups,
groups, families and super-families. One can find the exact figures on the use of labial
consonants elsewhere (Tambovtsev, 2001-a; 2001-b; 2001-c).
We computed the transcribed texts in 167 world languages to see the tendencies of the
occurrence of the occurrence of labial consonants. Below we provide the mean frequencies of
labials in such language families as Indo-European (Indic – 10.30%; Iranic – 13.38%;
Slavonic – 13.65%; Germanic – 11.42%; Romanic – 11.08%), Finno-Ugric (11.22%),
Samoyedic (11.46%), Turkic (8.71%), Mongolic (7.28%), Tungus-Manchurian (10.12%),
Paleo-Asiatic (7.93%), Caucasian (10.45%), Austronesian (9.11%), Australian (11.18%) and
American Indian (10.52%). The data show the general tendencies of the use of labials in
world languages. It is vivid that Mongolic and Paleo-Asiatic languages underexploit the use
of labials. In fact, the lowest concentration of labial consonants we found in the speech chain
of the Itelmen language (6.43%), spoken on the Kamchatka peninsula while the greatest
concentration of labials is in Swahili (16.61% of all the phonemes in the speech chain). So,
one can see that the use of labials may be depress really much, i.e. by about 3 times.