Editing Language (section)

===Typology and universals===
{{main|Linguistic typology|Linguistic universal}}

Languages can be classified in relation to their grammatical types. Languages that belong to different families nonetheless often have features in common, and these shared features tend to correlate.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Nichols|1992}};{{harvcoltxt|Comrie|1989}}</ref> For example, languages can be classified on the basis of their basic [[word order]], the relative order of the [[verb]], and its constituents in a normal indicative [[sentence (linguistics)|sentence]]. In English, the basic order is [[Subject–verb–object|SVO]] (subject–verb–object): "The snake(S) bit(V) the man(O)", whereas for example, the corresponding sentence in the [[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian language]] [[Gamilaraay language|Gamilaraay]] would be ''d̪uyugu n̪ama d̪ayn yiːy'' (snake man bit), [[Subject-object-verb|SOV]].<ref name="CroftErg">{{harvcoltxt|Croft|2001|p=340}}</ref> Word order type is relevant as a typological parameter, because basic word order type corresponds with other syntactic parameters, such as the relative order of nouns and adjectives, or of the use of [[prepositions]] or [[postpositions]]. Such correlations are called [[Linguistic universals|implicational universals]].<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Greenberg|1966}}</ref> For example, most (but not all) languages that are of the [[Subject-object-verb|SOV]] type have postpositions rather than prepositions, and have adjectives before nouns.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Comrie|2009|p=45}}; {{harvcoltxt|McMahon|1994|p=156}}</ref>

All languages structure sentences into Subject, Verb, and Object, but languages differ in the way they classify the relations between actors and actions. English uses the [[Nominative–accusative language|nominative-accusative]] word typology: in English transitive clauses, the subjects of both intransitive sentences ("I run") and transitive sentences ("I love you") are treated in the same way, shown here by the nominative pronoun ''I''. Some languages, called [[Ergativity|ergative]], Gamilaraay among them, distinguish instead between Agents and Patients. In ergative languages, the single participant in an intransitive sentence, such as "I run", is treated the same as the patient in a transitive sentence, giving the equivalent of "me run". Only in transitive sentences would the equivalent of the pronoun "I" be used.<ref name="CroftErg"/> In this way the semantic roles can map onto the grammatical relations in different ways, grouping an intransitive subject either with Agents (accusative type) or Patients (ergative type) or even making each of the three roles differently, which is called the [[Tripartite language|tripartite type]].<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Croft|2001|p=355}}</ref>

The shared features of languages which belong to the same typological class type may have arisen completely independently. Their co-occurrence might be due to universal laws governing the structure of natural languages, "language universals", or they might be the result of languages evolving convergent solutions to the recurring communicative problems that humans use language to solve.<ref name="Myths"/>