| 421.1.6: SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS |
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| In the field
of semantics also search for language universals is reflected
in trying to find out whether there are semantic features
of general validity and whether we can find certain basic
principles which underlie the structure of vocabulary
of language in common. Ullmann (1963:221) suggests that
the existence in all languages of two types of words namely
transparent and opaque "is in all probability a semantic
universal". Here by transparent words are meant those
words which have an intrinsic relationship between the
form and sense. Onomatopoeic words such as Hindi jharnaa
'water falls', Tamil kaakaa 'crow' etc. can be taken as
exemplifying the set of transparent words. On the other
hand opaque words are those whose meaning is arbitrarily
fixed by social convention. |
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| Another
interesting phenomenon of semantic universals would be
whether languages have certain universal processes in
the way meanings develop in them. One such process is
the development of metaphors. In this connection Ullmann
speaks of C. Tagliarini's article (1949) on the names
of the 'pupil of the eye' in different languages. Tagliarini
showed that in Latin the word pupilla 'pupil' of the eye
is compared to a small girl or boy, because of the resembalance
between a child and the small figure which gets reflected
in the eye. Now what is interesting is that such a connection
is found not only in other Indo European languages which
are related to Latin but is also noticed in a number of
non-Indo European languages as Swahili, Lapp, Chinese
and Samoan. Interestingly, in some of the Indian languages
the word for pupil of the eye is same as that for a child
of doll. For instance in Hindi putlii means not only a
doll but the pupil of the eye. In Tamil and Telugu the
word paapaa has the meaning not only a small child but
also pupil of the eye. We will not go into further details
of semantic universals as some of these will be taken
up in the sections on 'universals and translation'. |
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| 421.1.7: LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS IN DIACHRONY |
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| We have
considered so far language universals in the context of
language as a synchronic subject of study. But it should
not be forgotten that language universals are also important
when languages are viewed from a historical or diachronic
perspective. One of the main concerns of diachronic linguistic
is determining genetic relationship among languages. Genetic
connection between languages is established on the basis
of shared features of form and meaning in vocabulary and
similarities of grammatical structures among the languages
concerned. But such similarities can result also from
mutual contact, it should just be a reflection of common
universal traits. Therefore, in determining genetic affinity
between languages, similarities due to these different
factors have to be carefully sorted out. Thus linguistic
universals become relevant in the study of genetic relationship
among languages. |
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| Yet another
away in which language universals become relevant in historical
linguistics is in limiting the ways in which linguistic
systems can change from one point of time to the other.
In other words, certain linguistic changes, though logically
possible, do not seem to occur as commonly as others.
The type of changes that can be shown to occur more frequently
in the history of languages across the world can therefore
be characterized as universals or universal tendencies
of linguistic changes. Let us consider one such tendency
in some detail. The vowel systems of a natural language
belong to one of the following two types: (i) all oral
vowels expressive as (v) or (ii) oral vowels as well as
nasal vowels the latter expressed as (v) it is generally
noticed that a vowel system changes from (i) to (ii),
i.e, when a language starts contrasting some of its oral
vowels with nasal vowels, such a change passes through
a systematic course. In the first phase of the change
the language in question may develop nasalised variant
(s) of vowels under the influence of an adjacent nasal
consonant. In the next stage of development due to the
loss of the nasal consonant, nasalised vowels and oral
vowels stand in contrast in the same environment. This
course of development can be schematized as follows: |
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| V,
N --- > N, N --- > V |
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| A change
of this type has been said to have operated in the history
of some of the well known Indo European languages like
Slavic, Romance including the Indo-Aryan branch. |
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| 421.1.9 : LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS IN OTHER
AREAS |
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| We have
seen that language universals have been a major concern
of theoretical linguistics. But search for language universals
has also attracted the attention of linguists working
in areas other than theoretical linguistics. In fact,
as early as 1941, that is much before language universals
became a focal point of research in modern theoretical
linguistics, Roman Jakobson wrote his classical work 'Kindersprache'
which was translated as 'child language aphasia and phonological
universals' by A.R.Keiler in the year 1968. As Keiler
points out in the preface of the book (1968:7) 'one finds
for the first time, in the kindersprache, a formal linking
of the problems of linguistic universals and of language
acquisition, i.e., the view that any explanation of the
latter is to be found in the innate character of the former'.
Basing most of his observations phonological properties,
Jakobson sought to show a systematic correlations between
how the phonological systems of natural languages are
organized, how such a system gets dissolved in aphasia
or language disorder. To take a few examples, Jakobson
argued that in child language development, acquistion
of fricatives presupposes the acquistion of stops. This
correlates with the way the phonological systems of world's
languages are organized. In natural languages the presence
of fricatives implies the presence of stops. Thus stops
are more primary to the phonological systems than are
the fricatives. To take an example, from the vocalic system,
he says that children first start with a wide vowel like
'a' which is then contrasted with a narrower vowel, often
the front 'i'. In the next stage of development either
the narrow vowel is contrasted along palatal and velar
opposition i.e. 'i' Vs 'u' or the child introduces into
his speech a third more central degree of opening, thus
contrasting his vowels height wise. This means that the
early vocalic system of the child would be one of the
following two types: |
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|
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| If we now
look at natural languages we notice that these are the
minimal vocalic systems that are available in the languages
of the world. |
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| Jakobson
(1968:60) points out that in a similar fashion "aphasic
sound disturbances exhibit a strictly sequence of stages,
and are therefore similar to those found in the actual
linguistic progress of the child". This regularity is
reflected in the fact that the dissolution of the sound
system in aphasia shows a mirror-image of the sequences
in which phonological development takes place in child
language. For instance, children acquire the distinction
between the sounds 'ro' and 'l' very late and in aphasic
and most common lossess. Some of Jakobson's observations,
especially those pertaining to the chronological order
of development of certain sounds in child language have
since been questioned. But his work shows clearly that
linguistic universals are a matter of interest not only
to theoretical linguistics but also for cognitive psychology
and language pathology. |
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| Needless
to say that more recently linguistic universals have attracted
the attention not only of psycholinguists concerned with
the processes of first language and second language acquisition,
aphasiologists and speech pathologists but also scholars
working in such applied areas as translation studies.
In the rest of our presentation we will deal with how
linguistic universals figure in translation studies. |
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