Abstract
What? Where? and Why? are the principal questions to ask in relation to linguistic typological patterns, in phonology as elsewhere. However, assembling sufficient and reliable information on a large diverse sample of languages presents challenges. Some of these issues are discussed in this paper, based on the practices seen in various database projects, including WALS and LAPSyD and in the wider literature. The challenge of recognizing areal convergence can be aided by simple mapping techniques. The most scientifically challenging issue is explaining ‘why’ as this requires considering multiple physiological, psychological, social, and other effects. Recent efforts to correlate phonological features with climatic and environmental factors offer a further potentially interesting way forward.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Current research in phonological typology
- Investigating the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ of global phonological typology
- Canonical phonology and criterial conflicts: relating and resolving four dilemmas of phonological typology
- Refining explanation in Evolutionary Phonology: macro-typologies and targeted typologies in action
- The prosodic foot beyond prosodic prominence: a preliminary survey
- On the comparability of prosodic categories: why ‘stress’ is difficult
- Bootstrap co-occurrence networks of consonants and the Basic Consonant Inventory
- Frequent violation of the sonority sequencing principle in hundreds of languages: how often and by which sequences?
- Diachronic phonological typology: understanding inventory structure through sound change dynamics
- Place typology and evolution of implosives in Indo-Aryan languages
- Estimating areal effects in typology: a case study of African phoneme inventories
- Word prosody of African versus European-origin words in Afro-European creoles
- Towards a phonological typology of the Kalahari Basin Area languages
- The typological frequency of consonants is highly predictive of their order of acquisition in English
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Current research in phonological typology
- Investigating the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ of global phonological typology
- Canonical phonology and criterial conflicts: relating and resolving four dilemmas of phonological typology
- Refining explanation in Evolutionary Phonology: macro-typologies and targeted typologies in action
- The prosodic foot beyond prosodic prominence: a preliminary survey
- On the comparability of prosodic categories: why ‘stress’ is difficult
- Bootstrap co-occurrence networks of consonants and the Basic Consonant Inventory
- Frequent violation of the sonority sequencing principle in hundreds of languages: how often and by which sequences?
- Diachronic phonological typology: understanding inventory structure through sound change dynamics
- Place typology and evolution of implosives in Indo-Aryan languages
- Estimating areal effects in typology: a case study of African phoneme inventories
- Word prosody of African versus European-origin words in Afro-European creoles
- Towards a phonological typology of the Kalahari Basin Area languages
- The typological frequency of consonants is highly predictive of their order of acquisition in English