The Hypothesis Universal

The hypothesis universal states that laguage acquisition is governed by the

way in which natural language are organized. That is, certain universal linguistic
properties influence the order in which the rules of a specifi language are
acquired. According to universal hypothesis, then, it is linguitics rather than
general cognitive factors that determine acquisition.
Two approaches of learner processing input
1. Using general cognitive strategies which are part of their procedural
knowledge and which are used in other forms of learning. These
strategies are often referred to as learner strategies.
2. Using a special linguistic faculty that enables them to operate on
the input data in order to discover the L2 rules in maximally
efficient ways.
This linguistics faculty is referred to as Universal Grammar.
The purpose of this chapter :
The importance of study of linguistic universals.

The Contents of This Chapter

Linguistics Universal (Universal Grammar typological universals)
The role of universals in L1 acquisition
The role of lingustics universals in SLA
Effect on grammar formation
Effect on L1 transfer
The problems of the Universal Hypothesis
Linguistic Universals
In general sense A linguistics universal is a statement that is true for all
languages.

Linguistic Universals
(from Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.18-19, as cited in de Valenzuela,
1998, pp. 125-6)
1. Wherever humans exist, language exist
2. There are no primitive languages all langauges are equally complex
and equally capable of expressing any idea in the universe. The
vocabulary of any language can be expanded to include new words for
new concepts.
3. All languages change through time
4. The relationships between the sounds and the meanings of spoken
languages and between the gestures (signs) and the meaning of sign
languages are for the most part arbitrary.
5. All human languages utilize a finite set of discrete sounds (or gesture) that
are combined to form meaningful elements or words, which themselves
from an infinite set of possible sentences.
6. All grammars contain rules for the information of words and sentences of a
similar kind.
7. Every spoken language includes dicrete sound segments like p, n, or a,
which can be defined by a finite set of sound properties or features. Every
spoken language has a class of vowels and class of consonants.
8. Similar grammatical categories (for examples, nour, verb) are found in all
languages.
 9. There are sematics universals, such as male or female, animate or
human, found in every language in the world.
10. Every language has a way of referring to past time, forming
questions, issuing commands, and so on.

Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and comprehending an infinite set of
sentences. Syntactic universals reveal that every language has a way of forming sentences
such as :
Linguistics is an interesting subject.
I know that linguistics is an interesting interesting subject.
You know that I know that linguistics is an interesting subject.
Cecilia knows that you know that I know that linguistics is an interesting subject.
Is it a fact that Cecilia knows that you know that I know that linguistics is an interesting
subject?

Any nomal child, born anywhere in the world of any racial, geographical, social, or
economic heritage, is capable of learning any language to which he or she is exposed. The
differences we find among languages cannot be due to biological reasons.

Universality 1
All language have nouns and verbs
Languages Verbs Nouns

English Sit; smile Rose ; tears

Bahasa Indonesia Duduk; Senyum Mawar; Air Mata

Universality 2
All spoken languages have consonants and vowels.
Language Consonants Vowel

English dl ai e i

Chinese zes i

Universality 3
All languages are guided by some hidden fundamental principles------ Universal
Grammar
A grammatical rule (or other linguistic feature that is found in all languages.

Classification 1 of Linguistic Universals

Two types :
 1. Absolute or statistical universals.
2. Implication or true universals.

Classification 1 of Linguistic Universals

Type1 : Absolute universals
Trends that appear in patterning that likely come about through historical change
under the influence of any number of forces
Example: If a language is SOV, then if the adjective procedes the N, the N the genitive
precedes the N.

All languages have pronouns.

Universals are properties of a language that aid communication.

Classification 2 of Linguistic Universals

Dividing by the parts of a language that they affect .

Two types :
Type1 : Phonetic/phonological universals involve the sounds and sound changes that a
language goes through.

Type2 : Mophological universals involve word structure and morphemes.

Linguistic Typology
Definition in general sense :
The investigation of linguistic types. Linguistic types appear when the linguist has
classified linguistic entities by virtue of a similarity.

Definition in a narrow sense :

Linguistic typology is a cross-linguistic description and explanation of the unity and
diversity of languages with respect to linguistic form or the meaning/function.

Classification of Linguistic Typology

Three types:
Type: Morphological (Word Structure)
Type: Syntactic (Word Order)
Type: Phonological (Sound Patterns)

Morphological Level
Type: Morphological Level
Languages may be classified morphologically according to the numbers of morphemes within
a word

Classification LT from Morphological Level Type

Analytic languages (ideally one morpheme per word, such as Vietnamese with an estimated
1,06 morphemes per word)
 Synthetic languages (two or more morphemes per word, such as Sanskrit, with an 2,59
morphemes per word)
\
Attention
Inflected languages are a variety of synthetic language in which takes various forms, most
usually by the addition of suffixes
Such as English: boys, the boys mother, play/played

Classification from Syntactic Level Type

Type: Syntactic (word order)
In the past quarter century, basic word order has been the main criterion to classify languages.

The most common are those in which the subject comes first (SVO as in English, SOV in
Japanese)

Less common are those in which the verb comes first (VSO as in Welsh)

The least common are those in which objects come first (OVS as in Hixkatyana, spoken in
northern Brazil)

Classification from Phonological Level Type

Type: phonological (sound patterns)
With regard to RHYTHM, languages can be divided from phonological perspective

1. Syllabletimed languages, such as French and Japanese in which the rhythm appears to be
fairly even
2. Stress-timed languages, such as in English and ARABIC, in which stressed syllables recue at
intervals
3. Another distinction is between tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, and non-tonal
languages such as English

Summary
The study of universals is concerned with what human languages have in common
The study of typology deals with ways in which languages differ from each other.

Reference
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/e2a71f8471fe910ef12df8d3.html