Solving Linguistic Problems

linguistics

#linguistics

These notes are probably useful if you try to solve linguistic problems from the International Linguistics Olympiad or Alex Bellos’ book Language Lover’s Puzzle Book by Alex Bellos, which requires you to decipher or write in a language that you don’t know by studying sample sentences or translations.

The International Linguistics Olympiads is not about knowing and using languages; it is about using logical deduction to decipher unknown languages. A typical linguistic problem often involves a corpus written in an exotic language along with clues that can help uncover how the language works and the corpus’s meaning, but it can really be any strange problems like reading bar code or writing braille. When solving linguistic problems, one needs to be open-minded about the different ways natural languages might be constructed and pay close attention to subtle patterns that might reveal the characteristics of the target language.

IOL notes shall be refactored here

Transitivity
- The arguments of verbs, which shows the type of verb
- intransitive verbs only has the subject as argument
- transitive verbs that describes subject doing something to an object
- disransitive verbs that takes both a direct and indirect object
  - Example: Gatsby (subject) gives me (indirect object) the ball (direct object)
- Verbs without argument
- The number of things that a verb deal with is called its valency (think valence electron)
Cases
- Basically, some languages change the nouns’ spelling based on their row in the sentence.
  - For example, in Old English:
    Dog+(subject ending) ate cat+(object ending).
    means exactly the same thing as:
    Cat+(object ending) ate dog+(subject ending).
    and also the same thing as:
    Ate dog+(subject ending) cat+(object ending).
    and also the same as:
    cat+(object ending) dog+(subject ending) ate.
    On the other hand,
    Dog+(object ending) ate cat+(subject ending)
    means something entirely different.^[https://people.umass.edu/sharris/in/gram/GrammarBook/GramCases.html]
  - In Russian, the cases are: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, and prepositional
    - For the categorisation of cases, see Wikipedia
- Note that some languages use only preposition (e.g.English), while some only use case (e.g. Tsez), and some use both (e.g. Russian)
Ergativity
- It refers to… well just watch this video
  - https://www.youtube.com/embed/kFzt_GHNd1M
- Basically, there are different ways of grouping subjects of intransitive verbs as well as the subject and object of transitive verbs together to distinguish them
  - nominative-accusative marking as in English
    - She jumps
    - She calls her
  - ergative-absolutive marking as in some language
    - She jumps
    - Her calls she
    - Ash arrived and Brock saw Ash = Ash arrived and Brock saw
  - tripartite marking that marks all three differently like
    - She jumps
    - Sher calls her
  - Direct marking as in Chinese
    - She jumps
    - She calls she
  - Theoretically, this is also possible
    - She jumps
    - Her calls her
- Volition-dependency (aka split-S)
  - This is when the form of the subject depend on whether the verb is
    - non-volition: the subject cannot or don’t want to do the verb
      - e.g. cry
    - volition: the subject wants or can do the verb
      - e.g. speak
  - All As (subject of transitive verbs) use volition form and Ps (object of transitive verbs) use non-volition form
    - Cries him
    - She speaks
    - Her calls her
- Fluid-S
  - This is when verbs can be categorised to be both volition and non-volition:
    - He cries (deliberately)
    - Cries him (involuntarily)
- Split tenses
  - This is when ergativity depends on tense
- Morphosyntactic split
- Clausal split
Number of arguments
- Some languages are strict of the number of arguments around a verb
- French uses reflective verbs to make two arguments out of one
  - Je me lève
- Some other language combine the glue the object and the verb together

H4 Features of Language

Verbs, as described in the previous section
Noun classes, which could be
- Gender systems for nouns as in French
- Human vs non-human
- Animate vs inanimate
- The system in Dyirbal goes like: “animate objects and men; women, water, and dangerous things; edible fruit and vegetables; and everything else."^[https://www.uklo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/UKLO-Training-Resources.pdf]
Clarifying quantity of noun
- measure words before mass nouns to indicate number like some or all
- classifiers as in Chinese like a cup of and a head of. This can be fixed for each noun
- Distributivity: see this paper
- Clusivity
  - Viz. whether the plural include or exclude the first person
    ^[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivity]
Tenses and aspects
- We all know tenses
- aspect
  - This refers to the time span of something
    - perfective: a single action
    - imperfective: happens overtime
    - habitual: something that repeats
Mood
- Positive vs negative
- Must vs should vs might
Emphasis
- The syntax and/or the morphology can create different emphasis in a sentence
  - Therefore, I have decided to raise your salary
  - I have decided, therefore, to raise your salary
Voice
- In English: passive and active
- in Mongolian: active, passive, causative, reciprocal, and cooperative
- etc

H3 Useful Strategies

Think in terms of small units that construct the language
Group words in sentences into noun phrases, verb phrases, or other phrases
It’s okay to make guesses to start off a question. Maybe writing in pencil will help
Be open to drastic differences between languages for different cultures
Watch out for morpheme boundaries
Don’t assume things will look like the language(s) you already know
Make sure findings agree with all given examples. Don’t expect exceptions unless there’s no other ways
Move forward with intuition
Watch out for syllables
Don’t assume number systems are in base 10.
Beware of alienable/inalienable possessions
- alienable: table, garden, etc.
- inalienable: something that something must have. Such as a leg, mother, or top
Watch out for animate/inanimate nouns
- animate: people or animal like he, she, who, worm
- inanimate: things or concepts like corn, sleep
Watch out for word forms like dual, triple, etc rather than single and plural
Languages tend to be simple, so don’t go for the complex answer
Don’t assume one word to one word translation. Think German
Don’t think rewriting stuff will wast time
Keep calm
Practise!!!

H3 Problem Types

H4 §1 Rosetta

Lalana Chinantec from IOL’s sample problem pack is an example

A very common type of problem
In a Rosetta problem, you are typically given a bunch of sentences in the target along with their English translations, and you are asked to translate some new sentences between the two languages
The general procedure of doing this type of question:
1. Observe to identify the word order
  - Usually, find nouns first as they are probably repeated in multiple sentences as different arguments for the verb
2. Highlight the syntax
3. Identify the morphological pattern for nouns. Possibilities include:
  - Phonetic
  - Noun quantity
  - Noun classes
  - anything
4. Identify the morphological pattern for verbs. Possibilities include:
  - Type of noun used as the object or the subject
  - First/second/third person of subject
  - Conjugation
  - Cases
5. Write out tables for morphosyntactic or morphophonetic rules
6. Check identified rules against all sentences in target language AND the sentences in target language for translation
7. Start translating
8. Write explanation (if needed)
  1. Explain syntax rule
  2. Explain nouns
  3. Explain verbs

Solution to Lalana Chinantec

H4 §2 Semantics

Part 2 of Tupí and Guaraní from IOL’s sample problem pack is an example

This is the type of problem that deals with the meaning of words
It’s usually in the form of match-ups but there can be other forms as well
Strategies for this type of problem (use all work in parallel)
- Make assumptions and see if things work out
- Do statistics
- Identify the order for combining morphemes to form words or lexemes
- Be open to the the different semantic spaces in different language
- Expect different ways to construct compounds than in English
  - For example, pollen could be powder of flowers; chalk could be rock of powder; flint = rock of fire. Think Chinese
- Do not assume things to translate word by word; make use of concepts or shapes that are shared across culture
- Trials and errors
Writing explanation (if needed)
1. Identify syntax
  - Is it head modifier xor tail modifier?
2. Give literal translation for each matched pair or the lexicon

Solution to Tupí and Guaraní part 2

H4 §3 Kinship System

Basque Kinship from IOL’s sample problem pack is an example

This type of problem deals with how family relationships are expressed in different languages
However, different culture deals with these quite differently, so it can be hard to read about kinship in another language
- Anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan proposed these six basic structures
  ^[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship]
- There’s an extra one called the Dravidian system, which is even more complicated
- Also, there are hybrid systems
- (Video explanation see https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOi2c2d3_Lk)
- Note that this system is limited. Other system involves different names based on age difference, multi-generation relationships, etc. Think Chinese
What to do
- Identify the syntax
- Beware focus on gender
- Draw kinship system diagrams, in which
  - Triangles indicate males
  - Circles indicate females
  - An Ego indicates self
  - Generations are aligned
- ~~Maybe skip the question~~
- Write out tables
- Investigate the morphology

Solution to Basque Kinship

H4 §4 Scripts

Georgian Countries from IOL’s sample problem pack is an easy example

In a script problem, you are asked to read an unknown script (with some clues provided) and start translating.
Watch out for:
- boustrophedon (see Linguistics - Writing Systems)
- Phonetic scripts
- How meaning of words change the writing
- Exceptions
- Punctuation

Solution to Georgian Countries

H4 §5 Number System

Basque Numbers from IOL’s sample problem pack is an example

This type of question deals with how different languages represent numbers
Common differences in number systems
- The base. Common ones include:
  - 10 as in English
  - 60 as on a clock
  - 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 15, 23, 24, 27, 31…
  - These can be due to different ways of counting numbers at the beginning of a language’s development (e.g. English probably used the ten fingers)
- Changing base when number size change
  - Think J. R. R. Tolkien’s teenty, eleventy, and twenty
  - Also think the french seize ‘sixteen’ but dix-sept ‘seventeen’
- Different ways of combining smaller numbers to larger numbers
  - Think French: quatre-vingt-dix-huit means $4 \times 20 + 10 + 8 = 98$
- Addition or subtraction
  - This refers to whether $17 = 20 - 3$ xor $17 = 10 + 7$
Watch out for
- affixes
- different ways of counting for noun types
- phonetic changes
- cognates, or words similar (and mean the same) to each other

Solution to Basque Numbers

H4 §6 Grammatical Chaos and Order

Ancient Greek from IOL’s sample problem is a ~~easy~~ fun one

In a grammatical chaos and order problem, you are asked to match up sentences in the target language and their English translations
What to do
- Count to try to match groups with similar characteristics
- Write out tables
- Identify syntax or morphology, including
  - morphemes
  - tenses
  - cases (if applicable)
  - positive and negative sentences

Solution to Ancient Greek

H4 §7 Phonetics

This type of problem can take many forms, and there isn’t a fixed procedure
What to do
- ~~Panic~~
- Highlight different parts
- Look for pattern
- Try find connection between meaning and pronunciation
- See if it involves sound changes
  - Notation see https://www.uklo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/UKLO-Training-Resources.pdf
  - The order is important because sound changes can be multi-step

H4 §8 Other

if question.type == "other":
	print("oh no")
	for i in range(question.difficulty):
		panic()
	while not solved(problem):
		brain.append("creativity")
		try:
			solve(problem)
		except: MentalBreakdown:
			break

H3 Useful resources for practising

Past papers from IOL should serve.

Language Lover’s Puzzle Book by Alex Bellos provides a wider range of fun puzzles but might be less focused on IOL styled problems.

H2 References

Crash Course Linguistics. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtP5mp25nStsuDzk2blncJDW
Bellos, Alex. Language Lover’s Puzzle Book: Lexical Perplexities and Cracking Conundrums from across the Globe. Guardian Publishing, 2020.
Matthews, P. H. Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2003.
https://www.uklo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/UKLO-Training-Resources.pdf
Wikipedia
Google image
https://www.uklo.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Ellies-Linguistic-Tips.pdf
https://ailo.adaptcentre.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/AILO-Teaching-Materials-Brochure-2019.pdf

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