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Fahrenheit was the first to produce two thermometers which, under identical conditions, produced identical readings. In linguistics, given the same phenomenon, we need to produce the same readings more often. The prerequisite for comparison is measurement, and if we take measurement more seriously, we can hope for the virtuous circle of more accurate measurement, which leads to more insightful accounts, which require more accurate measurement, which leads … Of course, a thermometer targets temperature only. If we refine our linguistic scales (criteria), each targeting one phenomenon, we can tease apart combinations of factors (see, for instance, Nikolaeva 2013 on finiteness). This matters since the clustering we observe may be accidental or significant, a point stressed in both Canonical Typology and Multivariate Typology. Given a criterion, we push it to the extreme (as Kelvin did for temperature) and ask whether instances of the extreme actually occur or not (either result is of interest). As an example, if we pull apart the possible criteria for reported speech, we find a wide range of possibilities, as Evans (2013) shows. Interestingly, natural languages vary considerably, but each avails itself of few of the possibilities. A large part of the theoretical space is not occupied. Conversely, the extreme instance of inflection classes, as defined by the combination of the extreme values of the canonical criteria, would appear to be highly unlikely on functional grounds. And yet, it is indeed found, in Burmeso (Donohue 2001, discussed in Corbett 2009). Once we measure carefully, we are no longer confined to labelling label items as just “hot” or “cold” (as if the world were that simple); rather we can explore their finer-grained nature. Variability and empirical uncertainty become easier to characterize, and can now be incorporated into our analyses, rather than being factored out of them (see Round forthcoming for helpful discussion). As we measure more carefully, additional tools become available, and we can enter mainstream (social) science (Bickel 2015). We do not need exceptional devices for linguistics. Rather we measure the variability of the length of vowels, or the range of the genitive case value, using carefully defined criteria (Corbett 2012); we do so similarly when comparing the idiolects of two Russian speakers, when comparing older/younger speakers, Russian speakers with Polish speakers, and Polish speakers with Archi or Tamil speakers. It is hard to imagine science without consistent measurement. We should follow Fahrenheit’s lead. References Bickel, Balthasar. 2015. Distributional typology: statistical inquiries into the dynamics of linguistic diversity. In: Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis, 2nd edition, 901-923. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Corbett, Greville G. 2009. Canonical inflectional classes. In: Fabio Montermini, Gilles Boyé and Jesse Tseng (eds) Selected Proceedings of the 6th Décembrettes: Morphology in Bordeaux, 1-11. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Available at: http://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/6/abstract2231.html. Corbett, Greville G. 2012. Features. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Donohue, Mark. 2001. Animacy, class and gender in Burmeso. In: Andrew Pawley, Malcolm Ross & Darrell Tryon (eds) The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton (Pacific Linguistics 514), 97–115. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Evans, Nicholas. 2013. Some problems in the typology of quotation: a canonical approach. In: Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina & Greville G. Corbett (eds) Canonical Morphology and Syntax, 66-98. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nikolaeva, Irina. 2013. Unpacking finiteness. In: Dunstan Brown, Marina Chumakina & Greville G. Corbett (eds) Canonical Morphology and Syntax, 99-122. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Round, Erich R. forthcoming. Review of Matthew K. Gordon, Phonological Typology, Oxford University Press 2016. To appear in Folia Linguistica.
Tidsskrift for Sprogforskning 5, 1-18 (now called: Skandinaviske Sprogstudier). Online: http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/tfs/issue/view/38
Linguistic Typology: a Short History and Some Current Issues (2007)2008 •
This issue of Tidsskrift for Sprogforskning contains written versions of the four invited presentations for the 7th Research Colloquium ‘Sprog på Statsbiblioteket’ (30 November 2006), which was devoted to Linguistic Typology. Typology is concerned with cross-linguistic variation; more specifically, it investigates the range of possible grammatical phenomena that are attested in human language and informs us about the way these phenomena hang together (tendencies, correlations). Typology also attempts to account for the attested frequency and distribution of grammatical phenomena, and to explain where the variation stops, i.e. why certain logically possible grammatical phenomena do not occur (for example, why there are no languages with basic order Numeral – Adjective – Demonstrative – Noun in the noun phrase, as in ‘three big these dogs’). By way of an introduction to this issue, I will give a brief outline of the history of linguistic typology in the last 50 years (mainly concentrating on SYNTACTIC TYPOLOGY) and mention some recent developments and current issues in the field, such as the problem of cross-linguistic identification.
This course explores the core assumptions and methods of the field of linguistic typology, describing, classifying, and defining the relationships between forms and functions in the world’s estimated 7,000 languages. This view of typology is based on the assumption that linguistic diversity needs to be studied in a cross-linguistic context, and this study must be based on a reliable empirical database coming from solid descriptive work. Topics will include a review of typologies based on word order and morphology and an examination a variety of grammatical and conceptual categories and constructions including case, clause structures, parts of speech, spatial language, predicative and inflectional systems, among others. We will examine a wide variety of languages from across the globe and take interfaces with language change and language documentation into consideration. Against the background of a corpus of data, we will examine the limits of linguistic variation and the explanations proposed for typological patterns, including information management, cognitive processing, and interactional language use and examine the relationship of typology to genetic and areal linguistics. At the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of cross-linguistic variation, theoretical approaches, and contemporary issues and debates within the field of linguistic typology.
Studies in Language
Review of Kibort & Corbett, eds. 2010. Features: Perspectives on a key notion of linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press2011 •
1990 •
Replicability in comparative linguistics
Replicability in comparative linguistics (DGfS lecture, Marburg 2014)2014 •
Functional categories in comparative linguistics Even after many decades of typological research, the biggest methodological problem still concerns the fundamental question: how can we be sure that we identify and compare the same linguistic form, structure, meaning etc. across languages? Very few linguistic categories, if any, appear to be ‘universal’ in the sense that they are attested in each and every language (Evans and Levinson 2009). The language-specific nature of form-based (structural, morphosyntactic) categories is well known, which is why typologists usually resort to ‘Greenbergian’, meaning-based categories. The use of meaning-based or semantic categories, however, does not necessarily result in the identification of cross-linguistically comparable data either, as was already shown by Greenberg (1966: 88) himself. Whereas formal categories are too narrow in that they do not cover all the structural variants attested across languages, semantic categories can be too wide, including too many structural variants to be useful for e.g. morphosyntactic typology. Furthermore, major typological word order studies after Greenberg (1966) have failed to keep formal and semantic categories apart in their attempt to account for cross-linguistic ordering tendencies (Rijkhoff 2009a). Recent proposals to employ ‘concepts’ as the basis for cross-linguistic comparison (apparently conflating linguistic/semantic and non-linguistic/cognitive categories) have also met with considerable skepticism (Levinson 2007). Finally, the idea that visual stimuli can produce reliable data for cross-linguistic research is also not unproblematic, as several studies have suggested that there is no single, ‘neutral’ way in which visual input is processed across different languages and cultures (e.g. Lucy 1996, Evans 2009). Furthermore certain ‘ontological categories’ are language-specific (Malt 1995). For example, speakers of Kalam (New Guinea) do not classify the cassowary as a bird, because they believe it has a mythical kinship relation with humans (Bulmer 1967). In this talk I will discuss the role of functional categories in comparative morphosyntactic research, a type of category that has hardly been taken into account so far. Functional categorization is not directly concerned with the formal or semantic properties of a constituent, but rather with the actual job of a linguistic form or construction in the process of verbal communication (in the tradition of the Prague School). I will argue that (a) functional categorization is methodologically prior to formal and semantic categorization (functional categories include semantic and formal categories) and (b) functional categories give better cross-linguistic ‘coverage’ then formal or semantic categories. Finally it will be shown that functional categories have their own distinct grammatical properties (Rijkhoff 2008, 2009b, forthcoming). References Bulmer, Ralph. 1967. Why is the cassowary not a bird? A problem of zoological taxonomy among the Karam of the New Guinea highlands. Man 2-1, 5-25. Evans, Nicholas. 2009. Trelisses of the mind: how language trains thought. Chapter 8 of Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us, 159-181. Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Evans, Nicholas and Stephen Levinson. 2009. The myth of language universals: language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32-5, 429–92. Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963. Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Language, 73-113. Cambridge: MIT. Keesing, Roger M. 1979. Linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge: some doubts and speculation. American Anthropologist 81-1, 14-36. Levinson, Stephen C. 1997. From outer to inner space: linguistic categories and non-linguistic thinking. In J. Nuyts and E. Pederson (eds.), Language and Conceptualization, 13-45. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lucy, John. 1996. The scope of linguistic relativity: An analysis and review of empirical research. In J.J. Gumpertz and S.C. Levinson (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, 37-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Malt, Barbara C. 1995. Category coherence in cross-cultural perspective. Cognitive Psychology 29, 85-148. Rijkhoff, Jan, 2008. Synchronic and diachronic evidence for parallels between noun phrases and sentences. In F. Josephson and I. Söhrman (eds.), Interdependence of Diachronic and Synchronic Analyses, 13-42. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins. Rijkhoff, Jan. 2009a. On the (un)suitability of semantic categories. Linguistic Typology 13-1, 95 104. Rijkhoff, Jan, 2009b. On the co-variation between form and function of adnominal possessive modifiers in Dutch and English. In W.B. McGregor (ed.), The Expression of Possession, 51-106. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Rijkhoff, Jan. forthcoming. Word order.
Paper presented at the workshop "Variation and universals in language - The implications of typological evidence for formal grammar", Crecchio (PE), Italy, 9-11 June 2017, https://www.robertadalessandro.it/crecchio-workshop
What diachronic typology can tell us about language universals and variationhttps://www.sismel.it/pag_art_prn.php?hdntiid=1967&hdnlanguage=IT
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