New challenges in typology : transcending the borders and refining the distinctions / edited by Patience Epps, Alexandre Arkhipov.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Epps, Patience, 1973-

Arkhipov, Alexandre.

Series:

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 217.

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs, 1861-4302 ; 217

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Typology (Linguistics).

Language and languages--Classification.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (440 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The volume brings together seventeen chapters by typologists and typologically oriented field linguists who have recently completed their Ph.D. theses. Through their case studies of selected theoretically relevant issues the authors highlight the mutual importance of language description, on the one hand, and of cross-linguistically informed theory, on the other. Faced with new data from previously unknown languages and even from lesser-studied varieties of European languages, linguists constantly have to deal with the inadequacy of established concepts and typologies, being pushed to further refine their classifications and to question the accepted borderlines between different categories, types, and levels of linguistic description. The scope of the individual contributions to the volume varies from worldwide typological samples to family-internal typology to in-depth studies of single languages. The range of linguistic domains addressed include tonology, morphology, syntax, and lexical classes. Among the phenomena scrutinized are clitics, tones, case, agreement/indexation, localization, pluractionality, desideratives, lability, comitative constructions, raising, verb formation, nominal classification, parts of speech, and predicates of change. More general theoretical and methodological issues addressed include such topics as markedness, grammaticalization, lexicalization, and the integration of linguistic data and description. The book is of interest to typologists and field linguists, as well as to any linguists interested in theoretical issues in different subfields of linguistics. A particular contribution of the volume is to present a synthesis of typological and descriptive approaches to the study of language, and to highlight the fact that broader typological study and the focused investigation of particular languages are interdependent ventures that necessarily inform each other.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Contributors

Introduction

Part I. Word and phrase structure

Patterns of clitic placement: Evidence from 'mixed' clitic systems

Eton tonology and morphosyntax: A holistic typological approach

Part II. Case, agreement, and localization

A hierarchical indexation system: The example of Emerillon (Teko)

Where differential object marking and split plurality intersect: Evidence from Hup

Syncretisms and neutralizations involving morphological case: Challenges for markedness theory

Towards a typology of 'attachment' markers: Evidence from East Caucasian languages

Part III. Tense, aspect, and desire

Revisiting perfect pathways: Trends in the grammaticalization of periphrastic pasts

Individual-level meanings in the semantic domain of pluractionality

The symbiosis of descriptive linguistics and typology: A case study of desideratives

Part IV. Clause structure and verbal derivation

Comitative as a cross-linguistically valid category

Towards a typology of labile verbs: Lability vs. derivation

Towards the typology of raising: A functional approach

Historical pathways in Northern Paiute verb formation

Part V. Class struggle: Erasing borderlines

Reference and predication in Movima

All typologies leak: Predicates of change in Lowland Chontal of Oaxaca

Multidimensional typology and Miraña class markers

Part VI. New challenges in methodology

Steps toward a grammar embedded in data

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612188084

9781282188082

1282188089

9783110219067

3110219069

OCLC:

646812091