Core sentence (language typology)
In the linguistic typology, the core sentence is understood to be a statement sentence that is as simple as possible, which linguistically realizes a proposition , an elementary conceptual ( pre-linguistic ) meaning.
The meaning of key sentences
The starting point is Miller's hypothesis that core sentences in any language should only consist of 7 ± 2 syllables. The reason for this is the organization of the memory, the “present time” of which is determined to be around 2 seconds: “You can keep about as many syllables and words“ immediately ”as you are able to pronounce within about 2 seconds.” The present time is correct , Duration of utterances between two speaking pauses ("breath groups") and of intonation units match.
To test Miller's hypothesis, an experiment was carried out with core sentences in 29 languages, including German. 22 German core sentences were formed and translated into their respective language by native speakers. As a result, it turned out that of the 29 languages only Japanese has an average number of syllables in the core sentences that is 10.2, which is slightly outside the specified range. Miller's hypothesis can thus be regarded as valid for the time being.
If the examined languages are ranked by sorting them according to their average core sentence length, connections with typological criteria can be demonstrated, including this: The position of a language on this scale is related to the complexity of its syllables.
Individual evidence
- ↑ George A. Miller: The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. In: Psychological Review 63, 1956, pages 81-97.
- ^ A b Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon, August Fenk: Self-organization and natural typology. In: Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung , 48, 1995, pp. 223–238, quoted on p. 228.
- ↑ Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon, August Fenk: Self-organization and natural typology. In: Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung , 48, 1995, p. 231.
- ↑ Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon, August Fenk: Self-organization and natural typology. In: Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung , 48, 1995, p. 234.
literature
- Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon: Units of meaning and linguistic segmentation. Narr, Tübingen 1983, ISBN 3-87808-208-8 .
- Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon, August Fenk: Menzerath's Law and the Constant Flow of Linguistic Information. In: Reinhard Köhler, Burghard B. Rieger (Eds.): Contributions to Quantitative Linguistics. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Quantitative Linguistics, QUALICO, Trier, 1991. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht / Boston / London 1993, ISBN 0-7923-2197-9 , pages 11-31.
