The original and influential linguistic Joseph Harold Greenberg was the major pioneer in the development of the linguistics as a empirical science. He contributed to sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, phonetics and phonology, morphology, and especially African language studies. He was born in 1915 in Brooklyn, New york and died in Stanford, california in 2001. Greenberg provided original classifications for the Native American Language Groups and suggested a combination of languages from Europe and Asia.
He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. During his academic career he served as president of the Linguistic Society of America, the African Studies Association, and the West African Linguistic Society.
He proposed the study of Linguistic typology, it is he study of the languages and the way how they differ from other.
Typological classification:
(SVO) Subject verb object (Fula, Chinese, English etc.)
(SOV) Subject object verb (a typical declarative sentence. Japanese, Tamil, Turkish etc.)
(VSO) Verb subject object (Arabic, Tongan, Welsh etc.) (VOS) Verb object subject
(OSV) Object subject verb
(OVS) Object verb subject
The last three categories are rare and normally occur in areas that have been relatively isolated.
*Examples:
-SOV (Japanese)
Watashitachi wa Nihongo o hanasu.
we TOP Japanese OBJ speak
'We speak Japanese.'
-SVO (English)
He ate the pudding.
-VSO (Arabic)
Qatala l- malik-u l- malikat-a
kill DEF king NOM+DEF DEF queen ACC
'The king killed the queen.'
-The Fula language of West Africa has an incredible number of words for cattle. One small dictionary lists no less than 82 words.
He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. During his academic career he served as president of the Linguistic Society of America, the African Studies Association, and the West African Linguistic Society.
He proposed the study of Linguistic typology, it is he study of the languages and the way how they differ from other.
Typological classification:
(SVO) Subject verb object (Fula, Chinese, English etc.)
(SOV) Subject object verb (a typical declarative sentence. Japanese, Tamil, Turkish etc.)
(VSO) Verb subject object (Arabic, Tongan, Welsh etc.) (VOS) Verb object subject
(OSV) Object subject verb
(OVS) Object verb subject
The last three categories are rare and normally occur in areas that have been relatively isolated.
*Examples:
-SOV (Japanese)
Watashitachi wa Nihongo o hanasu.
we TOP Japanese OBJ speak
'We speak Japanese.'
-SVO (English)
He ate the pudding.
-VSO (Arabic)
Qatala l- malik-u l- malikat-a
kill DEF king NOM+DEF DEF queen ACC
'The king killed the queen.'
-The Fula language of West Africa has an incredible number of words for cattle. One small dictionary lists no less than 82 words.
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