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A few lessons from typology
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Joan Bresnan
Published/Copyright:
July 31, 2007
Abstract
Typology has a low profile in much of American linguistics, especially outside of phonology (Nichols 2007, Hyman 2007, Van Valin 2007). Yet, as I will suggest, the study of the results and methods of modern typology has important lessons for us as the field of linguistics undergoes a paradigm shift. Typologists study a wide range of language types, but I will show that even when one does theoretical work on a single, well-studied standardized national language like English, one can (and should) benefit from an awareness of typological findings.
Received: 2005-12-17
Revised: 2006-12-20
Published Online: 2007-07-31
Published in Print: 2007-07-20
© Walter de Gruyter
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Articles in the same Issue
- Preface
- What or where can we do better? Some personal reflections on (the tenth anniversary of) Linguistic Typology
- Wider and deeper
- What is universal about typology?
- Extent and limits of linguistic diversity as the remit of typology – but through constraints on what is diversity limited?
- Representative sampling and typological explanation: A phenomenological lament
- Typology and linguistic theory in the past decade: A personal view
- A note on linguistic theory and typology
- The importance of typology in explaining recurrent sound patterns
- Linguistic typology: Morphology
- Pre-established categories don't exist: Consequences for language description and typology
- Linguistic typology requires crosslinguistic formal categories
- Typological approaches to lexical semantics
- Chinese linguistics and typology: The state of the art
- Interfaces between linguistic typology and child language research
- Typology in American linguistics: An appraisal of the field
- What, if anything, is typology?
- Typology in the 21st century: Major current developments
- Some thoughts on the reason for the lesser status of typology in the USA as opposed to Europe
- Methodology and the empirical base of typology
- Where's phonology in typology?
- Linguistic typology and theory construction: Common challenges ahead
- On the relationship of typology to theoretical syntax
- A few lessons from typology
Articles in the same Issue
- Preface
- What or where can we do better? Some personal reflections on (the tenth anniversary of) Linguistic Typology
- Wider and deeper
- What is universal about typology?
- Extent and limits of linguistic diversity as the remit of typology – but through constraints on what is diversity limited?
- Representative sampling and typological explanation: A phenomenological lament
- Typology and linguistic theory in the past decade: A personal view
- A note on linguistic theory and typology
- The importance of typology in explaining recurrent sound patterns
- Linguistic typology: Morphology
- Pre-established categories don't exist: Consequences for language description and typology
- Linguistic typology requires crosslinguistic formal categories
- Typological approaches to lexical semantics
- Chinese linguistics and typology: The state of the art
- Interfaces between linguistic typology and child language research
- Typology in American linguistics: An appraisal of the field
- What, if anything, is typology?
- Typology in the 21st century: Major current developments
- Some thoughts on the reason for the lesser status of typology in the USA as opposed to Europe
- Methodology and the empirical base of typology
- Where's phonology in typology?
- Linguistic typology and theory construction: Common challenges ahead
- On the relationship of typology to theoretical syntax
- A few lessons from typology
