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Why Study Linguistic Variation?
One of the major tasks of linguistic theory is to understand the nature of linguistic variation.
It is well established that human languages are all instantiations of the same basic system, characterized by properties such as arbitrariness of the sign, duality of patterning, recursivity, and a hierarchic structure with similar properties throughout the grammar; this applies to phonology as well as word structure, syntax and semantics/logical form. Furthermore, although the inventory of grammatical categories is not identical from language to language, the categories are drawn from a finite, universal inventory, with a high degree of overlap in the choice of categories across languages. Operations such as predication, negation, questioning, anaphoric reference, assimilation, assignment of rhythmic structure, etc. are also characteristic and indispensible properties of natural languages.
Nevertheless languages differ from one another. We cannot understand or speak a foreign language without extensive training, and acquiring competence in a foreign language is notoriously hard. Clearly, linguistic variation is a major impediment for interaction among the people of the world. It is also a source of inequality, since millions of people speak languages which have no prestige, have no written standard, and are never used in any formal, social contexts, including education. Competence in a standard national language and often at least one of the world languages is generally required for social advancement. Yet people do not have equal access to education in such languages. On the other hand every language or dialect is a carrier of tradition and culture, and contributes to sense of identity and community, etc. Every language or dialect has a unique combination of properties, which is irretrievably lost if the language or dialect dies out. Clearly, every person should be allowed to speak his own language or dialect with pride. Ideally we should be able to preserve the variation, yet make communication across languages easier.
To a large extent, the variation between languages is lexical: different langages use different words. Since the pairing of sound and form in words (or morphemes)is mostly arbitrary, acquisition of lexical knowledge is essentially a matter of learning words by rote, one by one. However, there is also variation in phonology, syntax and morphology. In syntax and morphology the variation concerns matters such as:
word order; for instance, does language L have prepositions or postpositions, does the object precede or follow the verb, does the noun precede or follow its modifier, are question words preposed or not?
the inventory of categories, including function words: For instance, does L have a definite article, subject-verb agreement marking, a verb meaning ’have’, a class of adjectives distinct from nouns or verbs?
the realization of functional categories: Are mood, aspect, definiteness, locational relations etc. realized as affixes or as independent words? Is negation realized as an adverb, an auxiliary verb, a clitic, or an affix? Is there a question morpheme, and is it an affix, a clitic, or a word?
the specific inventory of segments and features used in a language, as well as their particular phonetic realizations. For example, does L have a small inventory of segments (e.g. 20) or a large one (over a hundred), and what are the specific places and manners of articulation used in L?
the modification of features and segments by rules of the phonology. For example, does L show extensive assimilation and/or deletion, or, does L show extensive or limited phonology across word boundaries?
prosodic and rhythmic factors. For example is there a minimum or maximum word size in L, or does L use stress to mark rhythm across the entire word or simply to mark edges?
Linguistic research in the past 40 years or so has shown that this variation is not arbitrary but characterised by certain systematic patterns: The particular combination of such variable properties that a given language exhibits is in part the result of historical accident (for instance it depends on which other languages L has been in direct contact with), but is also in part determined by systemic constraints, which are perhaps ultimately rooted in constraints on human cognition.
One of the main goals of research into phonology, syntax and morphology is to understand this variation, and, if possible, reduce it to a restricted set of parameters from which all the actual variation can be derived. When this goal is attained, we will have taken a big step towards the solution of some of the problems caused by linguistic variation without sacrificing the variation. For example, the results of research on linguistic variation will have consequences for language planning, standardization and creation of orthography, issues that are vitally important in many parts of the world. They can be also be applied to problems of language learning, in order to develop new and improved techniques for learning languages. These applications will be detailed below in a separate section.
Aim | Why? | How? | Research plan | Applications
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