Approaches to Language Typology

Erscheinungsjahr 1999
ISBN: 978-0-19-823866-9
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 396 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 600 g

What do all languages have in common, and what gives each language its individuality? Language typology, which has developed in response to these fundamental question, is concerned with the construction of theoretical frameworks capable of delimiting the range of possible human language and of capturing constraints on cross-linguistic variation. Language typology is a major concern of all contemporary schools of linguistics, yet a coherent image of the field is difficult to form because of the diversity of theoretical orientations and practical methodologies.

This collection brings together for the first time original contributions from major schools of typological research, from the Prague School of the Generative Grammar tradition. Leading scholars offer first hand accounts of the theoretical foundations and substantive findings of their particular school of thought, clarifying basic assumptions which are often not explicitly stated in the literature. The collection as a whole provides both a survey of the place of individual typological schools in the historiography of the subject and a comprehensive account of the present state of language typology in an international context. It gives an overview of both the underlying unity of and the differences in the methods employed in the field.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shibatani, Masayoshi

Bynon, Theodora

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie

Über Autor(innen)

Masayoshi Shibatani is Professor of Linguistics at Kobe University, and co-editor of the journal Pragmatics. He is author of The Languages of Japan (1990) and editor of several collections of typological interest including Grammatical Constructions (1996), Passive and Voice (1988), and The Grammar of Causative Constructions (1976).

Theodora Bynon is Professor of Historical Linguistics (now part-time) at the University of London. She is the author of Historical Linguistics (1977) and of numerous papers on topics in historical linguistics, the history of linguistics, and typology.