Unity Underneath Diversity
Languages differ immensely, but not at random.
- Typology classifies languages by their structural properties.
- The search for universals asks what constrains human language variation.
Linguists distinguish two main approaches:
- Taxonomic (Greenbergian) universals: empirical generalisations induced from a sample of attested languages.
- Theoretical (Chomskyan) universals: innate principles attributed directly to the human language faculty.
Greenberg's Method
In 1963, Joseph Greenberg sampled 30 languages and proposed 45 universals. The most powerful statements were implicational:
If a language has property X, it also has property Y.
These statements forbid one logical combination. A single counter-example directly refutes the claim.
Basic Word Order
All six word orders exist, but frequencies vary wildly across languages:
| Order | Share |
|---|---|
| SOV | ~41% |
| SVO | ~35% |
| VSO | ~7% |
| VOS | ~2% |
| OVS | <1% |
| OSV | <1% |
| None | ~14% |
Subject-before-object order dominates, appearing in roughly 86% of ordered languages.
Word order also correlates across elements. For example, VO languages typically use prepositions, while OV languages prefer postpositions.
Absolute vs Statistical
- An absolute universal admits zero exceptions across all human speech.
- A statistical universal represents a strong, widespread cross-linguistic tendency.
Common pitfall: Confusing the sample with the population. A biased language sample can easily disguise statistical tendencies as universal rules.