Languages of the world
Páginas: 4 (822 palabras)
Publicado: 25 de junio de 2010
LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD
Considering that there are billions of people in the world, the number of mutually unintelligible language is rather small – between 3000 and 8000-.
Despite theseemingly large number of languages spoken in the world today, three fourth of the world population speak but thirteen languages.
Of the 400.000.000 English speakers, 280.000.000 speak English as a firstlanguage and another 120.000.000 speak it as a second language.
LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS:
Philosophers and linguistics of all ages have been divided on the question or whether there are universalproperties which hold for all human languages and are unique to them.
About 1630, the German philosopher Alsted first used the term general grammar as distinct from special grammar.
The generalgrammar was to reveal those features “ which relate to the method and etiology of grammatical concepts, They are common to all languages.
The scholar Robert Kilwardby held that linguists should beconcerned with discovering the nature of languages in general. So concerned was Kilwardby with universal grammar that he excluded considerations of the characteristics of particular languages.
Thefollowing list of “linguistic universals” is far from complete; literally hundreds of entries could be added:
1- Wherever man exists, language exists.
2- There are no primitive languages- alllanguages are equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea in the universe.
3- All languages change through time
4- All normal human languages utilize sounds to express meaning5- All grammar contains phonological and syntactic rules of similar kind.
6- Similar grammatical categories (for example,noun,verb) are found in all languages.
7- Any normal child, bornanywhere in the world, of any racial, geographical, social or economic heritage, is capable of learning any language to which he or she is exposed. The difference we find among languages cannot be due to...
Considering that there are billions of people in the world, the number of mutually unintelligible language is rather small – between 3000 and 8000-.
Despite theseemingly large number of languages spoken in the world today, three fourth of the world population speak but thirteen languages.
Of the 400.000.000 English speakers, 280.000.000 speak English as a firstlanguage and another 120.000.000 speak it as a second language.
LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS:
Philosophers and linguistics of all ages have been divided on the question or whether there are universalproperties which hold for all human languages and are unique to them.
About 1630, the German philosopher Alsted first used the term general grammar as distinct from special grammar.
The generalgrammar was to reveal those features “ which relate to the method and etiology of grammatical concepts, They are common to all languages.
The scholar Robert Kilwardby held that linguists should beconcerned with discovering the nature of languages in general. So concerned was Kilwardby with universal grammar that he excluded considerations of the characteristics of particular languages.
Thefollowing list of “linguistic universals” is far from complete; literally hundreds of entries could be added:
1- Wherever man exists, language exists.
2- There are no primitive languages- alllanguages are equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea in the universe.
3- All languages change through time
4- All normal human languages utilize sounds to express meaning5- All grammar contains phonological and syntactic rules of similar kind.
6- Similar grammatical categories (for example,noun,verb) are found in all languages.
7- Any normal child, bornanywhere in the world, of any racial, geographical, social or economic heritage, is capable of learning any language to which he or she is exposed. The difference we find among languages cannot be due to...
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