In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of helper words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing the form of a word to convey its role in the sentence). For example, the English-language phrase "The cat chases the ball" conveys the fact that the cat is acting on the ball analytically via word order. This can be contrasted to synthetic languages, which rely heavily on inflections to convey word relationships (e.g., the phrases "The cat chases the ball" and "The cat chased the ball" convey different time frames via changing the form of the word chase). Most languages are not purely analytic, but many rely primarily on analytic syntax.
Typically, analytic languages have a low morpheme-per-word ratio, especially with respect to inflectional morphemes. A grammatical construction can similarly be analytic if it uses unbound morphemes, which are separate words, or word order. Analytic languages rely more heavily on the use of definite and indefinite articles (which tend to be less prominently used or absent in strongly synthetic languages), stricter word order, various prepositions, postpositions, particles, modifiers, and context.
A related concept is the isolating language, which is about a low number of any type of morphemes per word, taking into account derivational morphemes as well. A purely isolating language would be analytic by necessity and lack inflectional morphemes by definition. However, the reverse is not necessarily true, and a language can have derivational morphemes but lack inflectional morphemes. For example, Mandarin Chinese has many compound words,[2] giving it a moderately high ratio of morphemes per word, but since it has almost no inflectional affixes at all to convey grammatical relationships, it is a very analytic language.
English is not totally analytic in its nouns since it does use inflections for number (e.g., "one day, three days; one boy, four boys") and possession ("The boy's ball" vs. "The boy has a ball"). Mandarin Chinese, in contrast, has no inflections on its nouns: compare 一天yī tiān 'one day', 三天sān tiān 'three days' (literally 'three day'); 一個男孩yī ge nánhái 'one boy' (lit. 'one [entity of] male child'), 四個男孩sì ge nánhái 'four boys' (lit. 'four [entity of] male child'). Instead, English is considered to be weakly inflected, and comparatively more analytic than most other Indo-European languages.
List of analytic languages
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
^See pp. 50-51 in Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009), "Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns", Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2, pp. 40-67.
^Li, Charles and Thompson, Sandra A., Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, University of California Press, 1981, p. 46.
^Geerts, G.; Clyne, Michael G. (1992). Pluricentric languages: differing norms in different nations. Walter de Gruyter. p. 72. ISBN9783110128550. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
analytic, language, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, examples, perspective, this, article, include, significant, viewpoints, please, improve, article, di. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints Please improve the article or discuss the issue January 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Analytic language news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message In linguistic typology an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of helper words particles prepositions etc and word order as opposed to using inflections changing the form of a word to convey its role in the sentence For example the English language phrase The cat chases the ball conveys the fact that the cat is acting on the ball analytically via word order This can be contrasted to synthetic languages which rely heavily on inflections to convey word relationships e g the phrases The cat chases the ball and The cat chased the ball convey different time frames via changing the form of the word chase Most languages are not purely analytic but many rely primarily on analytic syntax Typically analytic languages have a low morpheme per word ratio especially with respect to inflectional morphemes A grammatical construction can similarly be analytic if it uses unbound morphemes which are separate words or word order Analytic languages rely more heavily on the use of definite and indefinite articles which tend to be less prominently used or absent in strongly synthetic languages stricter word order various prepositions postpositions particles modifiers and context Contents 1 Background 2 Isolating language 3 List of analytic languages 4 See also 5 ReferencesBackground EditThe term analytic is commonly used in a relative rather than an absolute sense The currently most prominent and widely used Indo European analytic language is modern English which has lost much of the inflectional morphology inherited from Proto Indo European Proto Germanic and Old English over the centuries and has not gained any new inflectional morphemes in the meantime making it more analytic than most other Indo European languages For example though Proto Indo European had much more complex grammatical conjugation grammatical genders dual number and inflections for eight or nine cases in its nouns pronouns adjectives numerals participles postpositions and determiners standard English has lost nearly all of them except for three modified cases for pronouns along with genders and dual number and simplified its conjugation Latin Spanish German Greek and Russian are synthetic languages Nouns in Russian inflect for at least six cases most of which descended from Proto Indo European cases whose functions English translates using other strategies like prepositions verbal voice word order and possessive s instead Modern Hebrew is much more analytic than Classical Hebrew both with nouns and with verbs 1 Isolating language EditA related concept is the isolating language which is about a low number of any type of morphemes per word taking into account derivational morphemes as well A purely isolating language would be analytic by necessity and lack inflectional morphemes by definition However the reverse is not necessarily true and a language can have derivational morphemes but lack inflectional morphemes For example Mandarin Chinese has many compound words 2 giving it a moderately high ratio of morphemes per word but since it has almost no inflectional affixes at all to convey grammatical relationships it is a very analytic language English is not totally analytic in its nouns since it does use inflections for number e g one day three days one boy four boys and possession The boy s ball vs The boy has a ball Mandarin Chinese in contrast has no inflections on its nouns compare 一天 yi tian one day 三天 san tian three days literally three day 一個男孩 yi ge nanhai one boy lit one entity of male child 四個男孩 si ge nanhai four boys lit four entity of male child Instead English is considered to be weakly inflected and comparatively more analytic than most other Indo European languages List of analytic languages EditThis is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Analytic language news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Indo European languages Germanic languages Afrikaans 3 4 Danish English mostly analytic 5 Swedish Others Bulgarian and Macedonian forming the Eastern South Slavic language sub group the only partially analytic Slavic languages French partially Kalto Austronesian languages Hawaiian Maori Sino Tibetan languages Burmese Sinitic languages including Mandarin and Cantonese Austroasiatic languages Vietnamese Khmer Kra Dai languages Thai Lao Hmong Mien languages Hmong Maybrat Mixtec Sango YorubaSee also EditAuxiliary verb Free morpheme Isolating language Zero marking language Synthetic language Linguistic typologyReferences Edit See pp 50 51 in Zuckermann Ghil ad 2009 Hybridity versus Revivability Multiple Causation Forms and Patterns Journal of Language Contact Varia 2 pp 40 67 Li Charles and Thompson Sandra A Mandarin Chinese A Functional Reference Grammar University of California Press 1981 p 46 Holm John A 1989 Pidgins and Creoles References survey Cambridge University Press p 338 ISBN 9780521359405 Retrieved 19 May 2010 Geerts G Clyne Michael G 1992 Pluricentric languages differing norms in different nations Walter de Gruyter p 72 ISBN 9783110128550 Retrieved 19 May 2010 Grammar Cases people umass edu Retrieved 2018 04 19 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Analytic language amp oldid 1133301635, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
