Joseph Greenberg

Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915–May 7, 2001) was a prominent and controversial linguist, known for his work in both language classification and typology. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and served for many years on the faculty of Stanford University. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... Linguistic typology is the typology that classifies languages by their features. ... For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ... NY redirects here. ... Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in Stanford, California. ...

Contributions to linguistics

Language typology

Greenberg's fame rests in part on his seminal contributions to synchronic linguistics and the quest to identify linguistic universals. In the late 1950s, Greenberg began to examine corpora of languages covering a wide geographic and genetic distribution. He located a number of interesting potential universals, as well as many strong cross-linguistic tendencies. Descriptive linguistics is the work of analyzing and describing how language is actually spoken now (or how it was actually spoken in the past), by any group of people. ... A linguistic universal is a statement that is true for all natural languages. ...

In particular, Greenberg invented the notion of "implicational universal", which takes the form "if a language has structure X, then it must also have structure Y." For example, X might be "mid front rounded vowels" and Y "high front rounded vowels" (for terminology see phonetics). This kind of research was picked up by many other scholars following Greenberg's example and has continued to be an important kind of data-gathering in synchronic linguistics. A linguistic universal is a statement that is true for all natural languages. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ...

African languages

Greenberg is also widely known and respected for his development of a new classification system for African languages, which he published in 1963. The classification was for a time considered very bold and speculative, especially in his proposal of a Nilo-Saharan language family, but is now generally accepted among African historical specialists. In the course of this work, Greenberg coined the term Afroasiatic languages, to replace the former "Hamito-Semitic". Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ... Map showing the distribution of Afro-Asiatic languages The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia. ...

Greenberg's classification was largely based on earlier classifications, making new macrogroups by joining already established families - based on his method of mass comparison. The classification has been used as a basis for further work and some historical linguists have proposed even broader proposals of African language families. Hal Fleming introduced the Omotic family, and Gregersen proposed the joining of Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan into a large Kongo-Saharan family, which were in turn accepted by Greenberg, though in the case of Kongo-Saharan only implicitly. The Omotic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken in northeast Africa. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ...

Greenberg's work on African languages has been criticised by historical linguists Lyle Campbell and Donald Ringe, who do not feel that his classification is justified by his data and request a reexamination of his macro-phyla by "reliable methods" (Ringe 1993:104). Even Fleming and Bender, who are sympathetic to Greenberg's classification, acknowledge that at least some of his macrofamilies (particlularly Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan) are not fully accepted by the linguistic community and may need to be split up.(Campbell 1997) Lyle Campbell is a linguist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the director of the universitys Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL). ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... The Khoisan languages (also Khoesaan languages) are the indigenous languages of southern and eastern Africa; in southern Africa their speakers are the Khoi and Bushmen (Saan). ...

Indo-Pacific languages

In 1971 Greenberg proposed the Indo-Pacific languages super-family, which groups together the Papuan languages (several language families spoken in Papua New Guinea and nearby regions which are not Austronesian) together with the native languages of Tasmania and the Andaman Islands, but excludes Australian Aboriginal languages. This grouping is considered by most linguists to be highly speculative and is not accepted by anyone working on Papuan or Tasmanian languages. The Indo-Pacific super-family groups together several language families, mainly spoken in Papua New Guinea and nearby regions, which are not Austronesian, together with the native languages of Tasmania and the Andaman Islands. ... The term Papuan languages refers to those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... Capital Hobart Government Constitutional monarchy Governor William Cox Premier Paul Lennon (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 5  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $16,114 (7th)  - Product per capita  $33,243/person (8th) Population (End of September 2006)  - Population  489,600 (6th)  - Density  7. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ... The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding Tasmania. ...

Languages of the Americas

Later, Greenberg studied the native languages of the Americas, which most linguists classify into hundreds of separate language families. In his 1987 book Language in the Americas, he proposed a broader classification into three major groups: Eskimo-Aleut, Na-Dené, and Amerind. As Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dené were already well established families, he was effectively proposing that all other languages of the Americas formed a single family, Amerind. World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1], Central America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... Eskimo-Aleut languages Eskimo-Aleut is a language family native to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, and parts of Siberia. ... Pre-contact distribution of Na-Dené languages (in red) Na-Dené (also Na-Dene, Nadene, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit) is a Native American language family which includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit. ... In addition to its use by social scientists to refer (broadly) to the various indigenous languages of The Americas, the term Amerind languages may controversially refer to one of the three families in Joseph H. Greenbergs classification of all Native American languages—the other two being Na-Dene...

This theory is rejected and has been soundly criticized by most historical linguists. The criticisms are directed not so much toward the classification per se, but primarily to the method of mass lexical comparison used to establish it, which the majority of historical linguists consider inherently unreliable (see below); and toward the large number of errors that were claimed to be present in the sources used by Greenberg, such as wrong or non-existent words, incorrect translations, words attributed to the wrong languages, and unsupported or wrong identification of prefixes and suffixes. Mass lexical comparison or mass comparison is a highly controversial method developed by the well-known linguist Joseph Greenberg to find genetic relationships among languages in the remote past, beyond the limits of the traditional comparative method, or in situations where there are too many languages to practically apply the...

While some of these errors (which, according to Greenberg's defenders, only affect a few percent of the data) could conceivably lead to an artificial increase in the similarity measure, others would merely introduce random noise in the measurement, and therefore tend to reduce it — which would only strengthen Greenberg's conclusions^{[citation needed]}. Nevertheless, the allegations of widespread errors in the data along with objections to his methodology have led many linguists to dismiss this part of Greenberg's work as unscholarly and invalid.

Eurasiatic Languages

Later in his life, Greenberg proposed to join many language families of Europe and Asia into a single group called Eurasiatic, fairly similar to Illich-Svitych's older Nostratic proposals but differing in important ways - notably the exclusion of the Afro-Asiatic languages, which has since become popular among Nostraticists as well. He continued to work on this project from the time of his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer until his death. Eurasiatic is a hypothetical macro-family proposed by the late Joseph Greenberg that groups together several language families of Europe, Asia, and North America. ... Vladislav Markovich Illich-Svitych (1934-66) was a founding father of comparative Nostratic linguistics. ... The Nostratic languages are a proposed language superfamily to which some linguists believe a large number of language families from Europe, Asia, and Africa possibly belong. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumour within the pancreatic gland. ...

Greenberg's method of mass comparison

Greenberg proposed a controversial method for finding historical relationships when comparing too many languages for traditional methods of establishing regular sound shifts to be practical - a situation that arises particularly when attempting to establish long-range historical families in regions of the world where few if any lower-level families have been reconstructed, or where linguistic diversity is especially high. This method was enthusiastically embraced by some historical linguists (and many geneticists), but was rejected by most historical linguists, on account of what is perceived as pseudoscience by mainstream scholars. See mass lexical comparison for a fuller discussion. Phrenology is regarded today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ... Mass lexical comparison or mass comparison is a highly controversial method developed by the well-known linguist Joseph Greenberg to find genetic relationships among languages in the remote past, beyond the limits of the traditional comparative method, or in situations where there are too many languages to practically apply the...

Works by Joseph H. Greenberg

• 1963. "Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements," in Universals of Language, pp. 73–113. Cambridge: MIT Press.
• 1966. The Languages of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• 1987. Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• 2000. Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Volume I: Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• 2002. Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Volume II: Lexicon. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• 2005. Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and Method, edited by William Croft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Languages of Africa is a seminal 1963 book of essays by Joseph Greenberg, in which he sets forth a genetic classification of African languages that, with some changes, continues to be the most commonly used one today. ...

See also

• Nostratic languages
• Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
• Lyle Campbell

For criticisms and defenses of specific theories, see the relevant articles (implicational universals, mass lexical comparison, Niger-Congo languages, Nilo-Saharan languages, Afro-Asiatic languages, Amerind languages, Eurasiatic languages, Indo-Pacific languages). The Nostratic languages are a proposed language superfamily to which some linguists believe a large number of language families from Europe, Asia, and Africa possibly belong. ... Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (born January 25, 1922) is an Italian population geneticist born in Genoa, who has been a professor at Stanford University since 1970 (now emeritus). ... Lyle Campbell is a linguist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the director of the universitys Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL). ... A linguistic universal is a statement that is true for all natural languages. ... Mass lexical comparison or mass comparison is a highly controversial method developed by the well-known linguist Joseph Greenberg to find genetic relationships among languages in the remote past, beyond the limits of the traditional comparative method, or in situations where there are too many languages to practically apply the... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... In addition to its use by social scientists to refer (broadly) to the various indigenous languages of The Americas, the term Amerind languages may controversially refer to one of the three families in Joseph H. Greenbergs classification of all Native American languages—the other two being Na-Dene... Eurasiatic is a hypothetical macro-family proposed by the late Joseph Greenberg that groups together several language families of Europe, Asia, and North America. ... The Indo-Pacific super-family groups together several language families, mainly spoken in Papua New Guinea and nearby regions, which are not Austronesian, together with the native languages of Tasmania and the Andaman Islands. ...

Sources

• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, 4). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-09427-1. 

• Ringe, Donald A. (1993). "A reply to Professor Greenberg". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol 137: 91-109. 

Lyle Campbell is a linguist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the director of the universitys Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL). ...

External links

• Memorial Resolution
• Obituary from Stanford Report
• Obituary from Good Bye!
• Obituary by Bill Croft (.pdf file)
• New York Times article