Вход/Регистрация
Manual of comparative linguistics
вернуться

Akulov Alexander

Шрифт:

1) Reflexivety: a ~ a: a is related with a;

2) Symmetry: if a ~ b then b ~ a: if a is related with b then b is related with a;

3) Transitivity: if a ~ b and b ~ c then a ~ c: if a is related with b and b is related with c then a is related with c.

If an equivalence relation is defined on a set then it necessarily supposes grouping of elements of the set into equivalence classes and these classes aren’t intersected (Hrbacek, Jech: 1999).

2.2.4. Particular conclusions on the concepts of relatedness and unrelatedness for linguistics

When it is said that certain languages are genetically related (or simply related) it means that these languages belong to the same stock or even to the same group.

Taking into the consideration what has been said in 2.2.2 we should keep in mind that in the case of languages there are actually no positive evidences that all languages existing nowadays originated from the same ancestor, i.e.: monogenesis is still an unproved hypothesis, though anyway even if all languages can be reduced to the same proto-language that existed in a very distant past it doesn’t mean yet we can’t speak of their relatedness/unrelatedness.

Then, taking into consideration what has been said in 2.2.3 we can say the following:

The set of languages existing nowadays on the planet is rather well described: we know that there are about 7102 languages and about 151 stocks and 83 isolated languages (Ethnologue: 2015), so we can speak about 234 stocks; and we hardly can expect discovering of some new unknown languages. Thus, we can say that we have rather complete image of set of languages and that there are about 234 classes of equivalence/relatedness.

If we take an X stock, we obviously can show many languages which don’t belong to the stock, i.e.: languages which are not related with language x (a random language of X stock), for example: in the case of Indo-European stock there are many languages which are not related with English: Arabic, Basque, Finnish, Georgian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, Eskimo, Quechua and so on. In the case of Sino-Tibetan stock there are many languages which aren’t related with Chinese: Arabic, English, Eskimo, Finnish, Japanese, Turkish, Vietnamese and so on.

Thus, we can conclude the following:

1) Relatedness means “language belongs to a stock” unrelatedness means “language doesn’t belong to a stock”.

2) If set of 234 classes/stocks has been set up then it obviously supposes that there should be a possibility of classification, i.e.: we can say whether a language belongs to a stock; moreover, we always can show some languages which don’t belong to the stock. If possibility to prove unrelatedness is denied then we actually can’t establish scopes of stocks and can’t distinguish one stock from another; then even a single stock hardly could have been assembled.

3) Any two randomly chosen languages can be related or not related, i.e.: there can be no “third variant” since relatedness/unrelatedness supposes the existence of classes which don’t intersect. If a language of X stock is related to a language of Y stock it means that these stocks are related.

4) Possible objection can be the following: one can probably say that it is impossible to make precise conclusions in linguistics. Actually, I don’t think someone can seriously say this, however, if someone would speak out something like this I can only point on the fact that very long ago people thought that precise conclusions are impossible in physics. Possibility of precise estimations and precise conclusions depends on scholars’ will and on scholars’ intellectual courage only, but not on material itself; any material can be represented as item that can’t be formalized, and many items have already been successfully formalized.

2.2.5. An important consequence: transitivity of relatendness/unrelatedness

If we have proven unrelatedness of an x language belonging to X stock with y language that belongs to Y stock then, due to transitivity of unrelatedness, it means that x is not related with the whole Y stock.

2.3. Applying PAI method to some unsettled hypotheses

2.3.1. PAI against Nostratic hypothesis

Basing on comparison of lexis adepts of Nostratic hypothesis state that Indo-European stock, Kartvelian stock, Uralic stock and Turkic stock are relatives. Let’s see and test whether, for instance, Indo-European and Turkic stocks could be relatives.

PAI of Indo-European is about 0.5 (calculated after data represented in 2.1.4.2);

PAI of Turkic stock is about 0.012 (calculated after Yazyki mira. Tyurkskiye yazyki 1996).

Values of PAI differ more than tenfolds so these stocks evidently can’t be genetically related.

  • Читать дальше
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8

Ебукер (ebooker) – онлайн-библиотека на русском языке. Книги доступны онлайн, без утомительной регистрации. Огромный выбор и удобный дизайн, позволяющий читать без проблем. Добавляйте сайт в закладки! Все произведения загружаются пользователями: если считаете, что ваши авторские права нарушены – используйте форму обратной связи.

Полезные ссылки

  • Моя полка

Контакты

  • chitat.ebooker@gmail.com

Подпишитесь на рассылку: