Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology

✍ Scribed by Bernard Comrie

• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 279
• Edition: 2nd
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Since its first publication, Language Universals and Linguistic Typology has become established as the leading introductory account of one of the most productive areas of linguistics—the analysis, comparison, and classification of the common features and forms of the organization of languages. Adopting an approach to the subject pioneered by Greenberg and others, Bernard Comrie is particularly concerned with syntactico-semantic universals, devoting chapters to word order, case making, relative clauses, and causative constructions. His book is informed throughout by the conviction that an exemplary account of universal properties of human language cannot restrict itself to purely formal aspects, nor focus on analysis of a single language. Rather, it must also consider language use, relate formal properties to testable claims about cognition and cognitive development, and treat data from a wide range of languages. This second edition has been revised and updated to take full account of new research in universals and typology in the past decade, and more generally to consider how the approach advocated here relates to recent advances in generative grammatical theory.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 3
Contents......Page 5
Preface to the Second Edition......Page 9
Preface to the First Edition......Page 11
Preface to the Second Printing......Page 14
1.1 Approaches to Language Universals......Page 15
1.1.1 Two major approaches......Page 0
1.1.2 The data base......Page 19
1.1.3 Degrees of abstractness......Page 26
1.2.1 Formal and substantive universals......Page 29
1.2.2 Implicational and non-implicational universals......Page 31
1.2.3 Absolute universals and tendencies......Page 33
1.3.1 Common genetic origin......Page 37
1.3.2 External explanations......Page 38
Notes and references......Page 43
2.1 Typology and Universals......Page 47
2.2 Typological Parameters......Page 52
2.3 Morphological Typology......Page 56
2.4 Some Further Typological Parameters......Page 66
Notes and references......Page 68
3.1 Semantic Roles......Page 71
3.2 Pragmatic Roles......Page 76
3.3 Grammatical Relations......Page 79
3.4 Morphological Cases......Page 84
3.5 Illustration: English and Russian Clause Structure......Page 88
Notes and references......Page 98
4 Word Order......Page 100
4.1 Word Order Parameters......Page 101
4.2.1 Greenberg's correlations......Page 106
4.2.2 Generalizations of Greenberg’s results......Page 108
4.2.3 Critique of the generalizations......Page 113
Notes and references......Page 116
5.1 The Problem......Page 118
5.2 On Definitions and Categories......Page 120
5.3 Ergativity......Page 124
5.4 Semantic and Pragmatic Factors......Page 130
Notes and references......Page 137
6.1 The Discriminatory Function of Cases......Page 138
6.2 Natural Information Flow in The Transitive Construction......Page 141
6.2.2 Differential marking of A and P......Page 143
Notes and references......Page 150
7.1 Some Typological Characteristics of English Relative Clauses......Page 152
7.2.1 Defining the notion rdative clause......Page 156
7.2.2 Word order and relative clause types......Page 159
7.2.3 The role of the head in the relative clause......Page 161
7.2.4 The role of the head in the main clause......Page 167
7.3.1 Simplex sentences......Page 169
7.3.2 Complex constructions......Page 174
Notes and references......Page 177
8 Causative Constructions......Page 179
8.1.1 Formal parameters......Page 180
8.1.2 Semantic parameters......Page 185
8.2 Valency Changes in Morphological Causatives......Page 188
Notes and references......Page 198
9.1 Introduction: The Nature of Animacy......Page 199
9.2 Phenomena Controlled by Animacy......Page 202
9.3 Conceptual Animacy Distinctions......Page 208
9.4 Conclusions: The Nature of Animacy......Page 211
Notes and references......Page 214
10.1 Diachronic Dimensions in Universals and Typology......Page 215
10.2 Areal Typology......Page 218
10.3 Typology and Reconstruction......Page 224
10.3.1 Word order typology......Page 225
10.3.2 Word order and morpheme order......Page 230
10.4 Typology and Diachronic Explanation......Page 233
Notes and references......Page 239
11 Conclusions and Prospects......Page 241
Map showing location of languages cited......Page 248
References......Page 250
Index of languages......Page 260
Index of proper names......Page 271
Index of topics......Page 273