This dynamic ability to create new vocabulary must be located in some sort of "correct language" module in the language section of the Finnish brain. The "module" - or whatever it is - makes for the speaker and listener the crucial distinction between right and wrong usage also in cases where both the consonants and vowels are very similar and the structures would look grammatically exactly similar to some computer algorithm.
How?
My wild guess was that nobody really knows.
But then again, the American linguist Avram Noam Chomsky (born 1928) might be offended by such ignorance about his revolutionary work with deep linguistics. Or with recent advances in Cognitive linguistics.
Special language identification module in brains?
The ability to create new valid words and to distinguish between incorrect and correct usages is definitely not a simple logical process that can be easily explained by some brain wiring and hormones. No, it is a mysterious and highly complicated linguistic instinct that is beyond the knowledge of modern sciences.
A practical Finn caring for his or her language may ask for confirmation for some spelling or grammatical form from Kielitoimisto (the official language guardian of Finnish) which usually answers politely and occasionally adds new words to the official list of Finnish words (three new ones this December).
Learned instinct
There is something automatic, built-in, and instinctive in the language control package that Finnish babies probably get along with their mother's milk when first learning to say isi (or äiti). Later the kids learn the horribly complicated theoretical grammar of Finnish in school - äidinkieli (mother tongue) is for many one of the most difficult subjects in the school curriculum even they speak the language fluently.
Accordingly, the correct grammar and spelling rules are not in the beginning. Instead, the beginning is some individual/social language instinct giving rights and wrongs for exactly that language. Writing the language comes later as do the grammarians explaining the rules formally.
For example, Finnish was spoken long before it was written. The oral stage precedes by probably more than two thousand years the birth of written Finnish language. Bishop Mikael Agricola (1510-1557) wrote and published the first Abckiria 1543 and translated the Se Usi Testamenti in 1548. (Yes, you guessed right, the first book in Finnish was an ABC book followed by the New Testament.)
Examples of linguistic recognition
Two words, only the final o is different:
Tuomi
Tuomio
A native Finnish speaker gets immediately their meaning and knows that the two very similar looking words are not at all related.
Tuomi is the deciduous Bird Cherry or Hackberry (Prunus padus)
Tuomio is judgment or sentence.
Google translator gives for tuoksuva tuomi the logical translation fragrant sentenced trying to guess what is Tuomi. That machine would definitely not pass the Turing test!
If we add to tuomio (judgement) the active -ri ending (Finnish is agglunative language, meanings are modified by adding things to the end instead of indo-european prepositions) we need to modify the io to a (that is what our brain tells us) and so we get the pair of words.
Tuomio
Tuomari
It is immediately clear to a native Finnish speaker that those two words distinguished only by the final io > a-ri change are directly related.
Tuomio is a judgment, tuomari is a person who judges, a judge.
Similarly, the following words with initial K instead of T have only the final o difference:
Kuoli
Kuolio
Every normal Finn knows the meaning of kuoli - he or she died. (The Finnish language has no masculine or feminine or neutral like he or she, der,die, das - all people are equal!)
Similarly, the hypothetical language module in the brain tells every normal Finn that kuolio is a word for dead organ tissue and probably brings to Finnish mind those yellowish frozen toes caused by being too long in snow, gangrene.
Let us do that same the -ri ending thing with the io to a change
Kuolio
Kuolari
Everything looks okay, no Jose?
And yet, Finnish brain module says immediately "Sorry, Madam, Sir, there is no such word in Finnish language as kuolari."
Even if you wanted to invent dynamic vocabulary and suggest "kuolari" your native Finn friend hearing that word would consider it a mistake and nonsensical.
Why?
Nobody really knows but much work is being done on the subject as it is so crucial for understanding human languages.
The kind Finnish brain would be helpful and suggest right away alternative words working like a MS Word spellchecker searching for something that sounds similar - perhaps the foreigner saying kuolari was trying to say kolari (car crash) or kuolaaja (drooler) which are both valid words according to the "correct language" module in the brain.
Yet another example to prove the point
Tuomari Nurmio - well known pop star, Hannu Juhani Nurmio, perfectly valid language io ending name.
Tuomo Nurmari - immediately rejected as nonsense and laughed at as something funny even by young Finnish children just learning their mother tongue.
For you, dear non-Finnish reader, both word pairs probably look as good or as strange as you wish. Or wihs, whatever...
....
Note, for example, that there are researches in Helsinki University Department of Cognitive sciences who are currently actively studying generative linguistics and looking also at the language development of little babies.
What a nice subject!
Special language identification module in brains?
The ability to create new valid words and to distinguish between incorrect and correct usages is definitely not a simple logical process that can be easily explained by some brain wiring and hormones. No, it is a mysterious and highly complicated linguistic instinct that is beyond the knowledge of modern sciences.
A practical Finn caring for his or her language may ask for confirmation for some spelling or grammatical form from Kielitoimisto (the official language guardian of Finnish) which usually answers politely and occasionally adds new words to the official list of Finnish words (three new ones this December).
Learned instinct
There is something automatic, built-in, and instinctive in the language control package that Finnish babies probably get along with their mother's milk when first learning to say isi (or äiti). Later the kids learn the horribly complicated theoretical grammar of Finnish in school - äidinkieli (mother tongue) is for many one of the most difficult subjects in the school curriculum even they speak the language fluently.
Accordingly, the correct grammar and spelling rules are not in the beginning. Instead, the beginning is some individual/social language instinct giving rights and wrongs for exactly that language. Writing the language comes later as do the grammarians explaining the rules formally.
For example, Finnish was spoken long before it was written. The oral stage precedes by probably more than two thousand years the birth of written Finnish language. Bishop Mikael Agricola (1510-1557) wrote and published the first Abckiria 1543 and translated the Se Usi Testamenti in 1548. (Yes, you guessed right, the first book in Finnish was an ABC book followed by the New Testament.)
Examples of linguistic recognition
Two words, only the final o is different:
Tuomi
Tuomio
A native Finnish speaker gets immediately their meaning and knows that the two very similar looking words are not at all related.
Tuomi is the deciduous Bird Cherry or Hackberry (Prunus padus)
Tuomio is judgment or sentence.
Google translator gives for tuoksuva tuomi the logical translation fragrant sentenced trying to guess what is Tuomi. That machine would definitely not pass the Turing test!
If we add to tuomio (judgement) the active -ri ending (Finnish is agglunative language, meanings are modified by adding things to the end instead of indo-european prepositions) we need to modify the io to a (that is what our brain tells us) and so we get the pair of words.
Tuomio
Tuomari
It is immediately clear to a native Finnish speaker that those two words distinguished only by the final io > a-ri change are directly related.
Tuomio is a judgment, tuomari is a person who judges, a judge.
Similarly, the following words with initial K instead of T have only the final o difference:
Kuoli
Kuolio
Every normal Finn knows the meaning of kuoli - he or she died. (The Finnish language has no masculine or feminine or neutral like he or she, der,die, das - all people are equal!)
Similarly, the hypothetical language module in the brain tells every normal Finn that kuolio is a word for dead organ tissue and probably brings to Finnish mind those yellowish frozen toes caused by being too long in snow, gangrene.
Let us do that same the -ri ending thing with the io to a change
Kuolio
Kuolari
Everything looks okay, no Jose?
And yet, Finnish brain module says immediately "Sorry, Madam, Sir, there is no such word in Finnish language as kuolari."
Even if you wanted to invent dynamic vocabulary and suggest "kuolari" your native Finn friend hearing that word would consider it a mistake and nonsensical.
Why?
Nobody really knows but much work is being done on the subject as it is so crucial for understanding human languages.
The kind Finnish brain would be helpful and suggest right away alternative words working like a MS Word spellchecker searching for something that sounds similar - perhaps the foreigner saying kuolari was trying to say kolari (car crash) or kuolaaja (drooler) which are both valid words according to the "correct language" module in the brain.
Yet another example to prove the point
Tuomari Nurmio - well known pop star, Hannu Juhani Nurmio, perfectly valid language io ending name.
Tuomo Nurmari - immediately rejected as nonsense and laughed at as something funny even by young Finnish children just learning their mother tongue.
For you, dear non-Finnish reader, both word pairs probably look as good or as strange as you wish. Or wihs, whatever...
....
Note, for example, that there are researches in Helsinki University Department of Cognitive sciences who are currently actively studying generative linguistics and looking also at the language development of little babies.
What a nice subject!
No comments:
Post a Comment