By YUEN REN CHAO,

Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and

Literature Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

 

Before we proceed to describe the families of languages of the world, classified mainly on genetic relationships, we have to consider the question of the universals of language, features of language which are common for all mankind. The problem of common vs. individual traits of languages has been well explained by Antoine Meillet (1861-1936) in his Linguistique Historique et Linguistique Generate (Paris, 1926, 2nd ed.). If, for example, all languages have voiced and voiceless sounds, if all languages have recurrent identifiable units, etc., while such traits will be of general linguistic import, they will be of no use for telling one language from another and it is by the non-universal aspects of language that we can classify the different languages. However, as soon as we leave the few obvious points mentioned above, there is less certainty about the validity of what are usually regarded as universals of language. Following is a good summary of them by Samuel E. Martin in his review in Harvard Educational Review (vol. 34, no. 2, 1964, pp. 354-5) of Joseph H. Greenberg's Universals of Language (Cambridge, Mass. 1962). (The exact wording and examples are mine.)

 

(a) All languages have sentences made of expressions of at least two kinds—nominals and verbals: John has come.

 

(b) All languages have adjectival expressions which modify nominals: good food; and adverbial expressions which modify verbals: very good.

 

(c) All languages have devices for converting some or all verbals into nominals: shrinkage. Many languages have devices for converting at least some nominals into verbals: typify.

 

(d) All languages have devices for converting verbals or sentences into adjectivals: singing kettle; kettle that sings.

 

(e) All languages have devices for the linking of nominals and verbals: heaven and earth; sink or swim.

 

(f) Many languages have dummy elements as substitutes: John likes to dance, so do I.

 

(g) All languages have devices to negativize and interrogativize and to turn some sentences into commands and propositions: I am not going, are you? Come on!

 

(h) All languages have at least two kinds of involvement of verbals with nominals: The dog is sleeping; the cat has caught a mouse.

 

(i) Many languages have devices that shift agent-goal reference: passives, causatives, etc.: The mouse was caught.

 

While it is not claimed that all the preceding statements hold when applied to any given language, they may be regarded as valid unless cogent counter-examples can be demonstrated.