Every language

[mawes12]

I never heard the universal language before. I might look it up.

 

[mawes12]

Since you mentioned God, I'm assuming your question stems from the Bible and the story of the tower of Babel. Interestingly enough, the are similar stories in other religions so the myth isn't unique just to Judeo-Christian religions. (Brahma does something similar in Hindu lore.)

My question came from me thinking that there is so many words for 1 thing. I believe there is a god but I don't believe in images like my grandfather told my mother one day. Speaking of god, has anyone heard about the third Solomon temple being built? My younger brother told me about it.

 

[emsr2d2]

This is a language forum and your original post was about language. However, if you wish to move on to theological discussions, please start a new thread in the General Member Discussions section.

 

[mawes12]

I haven't really got the answer about all language having verbs, nouns, adjective etc. but I will try to know. Should I put sites I know?

 

[Tdol]

I haven't really got the answer about all language having verbs, nouns, adjective etc. but I will try to know. Should I put sites I know?

I haven't heard of a language that doesn't use these, though they may use them in very different ways and I cannot speak for all languages. Also, the categories themselves are not absolutes- we have things like gerunds, which are verbs used as nouns, and present and past participle verb forms can be used as adjectives.

 

[Tdol]

I am not a fan of Chomsky.

He's unavoidable as a linguist, though. Whether you agree or disagree with him, he is huge, simply because of the challenges he throws out, which take some refuting. His second career is a different beast.

 

[MikeNewYork]

There have been many scholars who have challenged and refuted his theories. At this point, he seems to be nothing more than a historical figure.

 

[konungursvia]

Do they have verb, noun, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and adjective? It's kinda strange how we are all humans but we have different languages.

There is a school of thought according to which there are certain grammatical features which are shared by all languages. To me this makes good sense, given, for example, that you can't think of many grammatical persons beyond the first (person speaking) the second (person he or she is speaking to) and the third person (someone not addressed but being spoken about). In short, the laws of physics, and the facts of pragmatics, force all language users into certain types of convention.

 

[mawes12]

we have things like gerunds, which are verbs used as nouns, and present and past participle verb forms can be used as adjectives.

yeah, I think gerunds are used differently in Spanish like I think they don't use present tense when they use gerunds.

 

[mawes12]

He's unavoidable as a linguist, though. Whether you agree or disagree with him, he is huge, simply because of the challenges he throws out, which take some refuting. His second career is a different beast.

To me, Even if someone is huge they might be wrong sometimes.

 

[mawes12]

I post these sites, http://www.omniglot.com/language/grammar.htm & http://www.linguanaut.com/#2782, here in case someone wants to know about it. I don't know if y'all are going to like it. If you guys have any sites, post it here.

 

[mawes12]

Does every language has the same question and wh questions?

 

[Skrej]

No. Similarities between languages are the exception, not the norm.

Some languages form questions simply by intonation, others with clitics, others with case endings, others by word order, others with affixes - there are dozens if not hundreds of ways of forming questions.

 

[mawes12]

No. Similarities between languages are the exception, not the norm.

Some languages form questions simply by intonation, others with clitics, others with case endings, others by word order, others with affixes - there are dozens if not hundreds of ways of forming questions.

Spanish have wh questions though. Are you saying some languages don't have wh questions?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I think it highly likely that many don't.

 

[Tdol]

To me, Even if someone is huge they might be wrong sometimes.

Definitely, but that doesn't mean that they're not still worth reading, and in Chomsky's case, I feel that many of his ideas are good.

 

[mawes12]

Definitely, but that doesn't mean that they're not still worth reading, and in Chomsky's case, I feel that many of his ideas are good.

I think I will read some then.

 

[mawes12]

Can every language be translated?

 

[Skrej]

Sure, if you know both languages.

If you're asking if there are languages nobody understands, yes. There are some ancient languages that haven't been deciphered yet, because all the people who spoke them have been dead for thousands of years.

 

[...p]

Can every language be translated?

I think every modern language can be translated, but not always this can be exact translation. Exactly because these languages have different grammar.