Re: Universal grammar

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Hans Aberg wrote:

The original question was actually about linguistic grammar universals,
not language universals.

I am not sure I understand the difference between "linguistic grammar
universals" and "language universals". Let me try:

linguistic grammar universal: a notion or concept of grammar that is
applicable to all languages (or: a *question* of grammar that can be
asked for all languages)

language universal: a grammatical feature that is common to all
languages (or: an *answer* (to a question of grammar) that is true for
all languages)

So, if all languages have sentences with subjects - which is probably
not true, depending on the definition of "subject" - but there are
many ways to mark the subject of a sentence, subjecthood would be a
grammar universal but there would not be a language universal about
subjects.

--
Helmut Richter
.

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