Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 20 Issue 3 -

Issue of Linguistic Typology

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available December 23, 2016

Discussion

December 23, 2016

Typology, documentation, description, and typology

Marianne Mithun

Page range: 467-472

December 23, 2016

What about typology is useful for language documentation?

Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

Page range: 473-478

December 23, 2016

Abstract

Typology based on codable traits has its heyday early in the development of any biological science. In mature disciplines it has long since given way to diachronic models of how complex structures evolve in shifting environments. Linguistic typology is no different. It also faces existential crises from recognition that its categories are dubiously universal and that global samples conceal macroareal biases. To avoid irrelevance, typology should blend into the linguistic landscape. It should defragment by refocusing on interdomain interactions (e.g., between mood and anaphora), and rediscover extreme languages and Sapirean types. Simultaneously, it must decentralize operationally into more manageable and illuminating family-level synchronic-diachronic microtypology.

December 23, 2016

Inspiration and corrective: Typology can be more than a mere pastime for historical linguists

Horst J. Simon

Page range: 497-504

December 23, 2016

Typology and coevolutionary linguistics

Nicholas Evans

Page range: 505-520

December 23, 2016

The mutual relevance of typology and variation studies

Peter Siemund

Page range: 521-536

December 23, 2016

Language contact: Trojan horse or new potential for cross-fertilization?

Pieter Muysken

Page range: 537-545

December 23, 2016

Positive signs: How sign language typology benefits deaf communities and linguistic theory

Roland Pfau, Ulrike Zeshan

Page range: 547-559

December 23, 2016

Typology and the study of writing systems

Geoffrey Sampson

Page range: 561-567

December 23, 2016

What can linguistic typology contribute to research on language evolution?

Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy

Page range: 569-578

December 23, 2016

Typology for the masses

Dan Dediu

Page range: 579-581

December 23, 2016

Typological bottlenecks: How large-scale regional language typologies help us interpret global prehistory

Roger Blench

Page range: 583-597

Abstract

It is unlikely that local or highly specific typological characteristics of language correlate with other aspects of human culture and history. However, at regional scale, the broad typology of languages does reflect bottlenecks. The paper argues that these regions of high typological similarity are due neither to chance nor long-term convergence, but reflect the initial conditions of settlement. This suggests that regions can be characterised by negative typology, i.e., the absence of globally common traits. Conversely, typological uniformity occurs in mainland Southeast Asia, a region notable for the similarities between language structures. An expansion of the remit of typology can uncover large regional patterns which can be tied to the archaeological narrative of the early expansion of modern humans.

December 23, 2016

Contributions of linguistic typology to psycholinguistics

Harald Clahsen

Page range: 599-614

Abstract

This article first outlines different ways of how psycholinguists have dealt with linguistic diversity and illustrates these approaches with three familiar cases from research on language processing, language acquisition, and language disorders. The second part focuses on the role of morphology and morphological variability across languages for psycholinguistic research. The specific phenomena to be examined are to do with stem-formation morphology and inflectional classes; they illustrate how experimental research that is informed by linguistic typology can lead to new insights.

December 23, 2016

The importance of linguistic typology for the neurobiology of language

Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Matthias Schlesewsky

Page range: 615-621

December 23, 2016

Do language-specific word meanings shape sensory and motor brain systems? The relevance of semantic typology to cognitive neuroscience

David Kemmerer

Page range: 623-634

December 23, 2016

Language typology in speech and language technology

Richard Sproat

Page range: 635-644

December 23, 2016

Linguistic typology in natural language processing

Emily M. Bender

Page range: 645-660

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which the field of natural language processing (NLP) can and does benefit from work in linguistic typology. I describe the recent increase in interest in multilingual natural language processing and give a high-level overview of the field. I then turn to a discussion of how linguistic knowledge in general is incorporated in NLP technology before describing how typological results in particular are used. I consider both rule-based and machine learning approaches to NLP and review literature on predicting typological features as well as that which leverages such features.

Book Reviews

December 23, 2016

Tasaku Tsunoda: A grammar of Warrongo

Barry Alpher

Page range: 661-673

December 23, 2016

Roland Kießling: Verbal serialisation in Isu (West-Ring) – a Grassfields language of Cameroon

Nicholas Rolle, Larry M. Hyman

Page range: 675-685

December 23, 2016

Jonathan David Bobaljik: Universals in comparative morphology: Suppletion, superlatives and the structure of words

Frans Plank

Page range: 687-713

Editorial Report

December 23, 2016

Editorial Report

LT since 2011

Frans Plank

Page range: 715-723

About this journal

Objective

Linguistic Typology provides a forum for all work of relevance to the study of language typology and cross-linguistic variation. It welcomes work taking a typological perspective on all domains of the structure of spoken and signed languages, including historical change, language processing, and sociolinguistics. Diverse descriptive and theoretical frameworks are welcomed so long as they have a clear bearing on the study of cross-linguistic variation. We welcome cross-disciplinary approaches to the study of linguistic diversity, as well as work dealing with just one or a few languages, as long as it is typologically informed and typologically and theoretically relevant, and contains new empirical evidence.

Linguistic Typology is published by De Gruyter Mouton for the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT). For membership and subscription details, contact the Secretary: Dmitry Idiatov

Article formats

• Research articles
• Target articles with peer commentary (If you have an idea for one, contact the Editor)
• Special issues (If you have an idea for a Special Issue, contact the Editor)
• Debates (contact the Editor)
• Language profiles, family portraits and areal surveys
• Review articles (reviewing two or more books, or a whole subject area)
• Book reviews (all book reviews are commissioned by Review Editors)
• Methodological contributions (e.g., reports on and reviews of toolkits, databases, software, collection of texts and corpora, archival collections resulting from fieldwork etc.) These should include a discussion of how/why the material is of typological relevance.
• Squibs (very short and often humorous pieces on a very specific topic intended to encourage debate)
• Contact the Editor if you have an idea that is not represented here

Volume 20 Issue 3 -

Issue of Linguistic Typology

Frontmatter

Is typology relevant?

Typology, documentation, description, and typology

What about typology is useful for language documentation?

Type-ology or typ-ology?

Abstract

Inspiration and corrective: Typology can be more than a mere pastime for historical linguists

Typology and coevolutionary linguistics

The mutual relevance of typology and variation studies

Language contact: Trojan horse or new potential for cross-fertilization?

Positive signs: How sign language typology benefits deaf communities and linguistic theory

Typology and the study of writing systems

What can linguistic typology contribute to research on language evolution?

Typology for the masses

Typological bottlenecks: How large-scale regional language typologies help us interpret global prehistory

Abstract

Contributions of linguistic typology to psycholinguistics

Abstract

The importance of linguistic typology for the neurobiology of language

Do language-specific word meanings shape sensory and motor brain systems? The relevance of semantic typology to cognitive neuroscience

Language typology in speech and language technology

Linguistic typology in natural language processing

Abstract

Tasaku Tsunoda: A grammar of Warrongo

Roland Kießling: Verbal serialisation in Isu (West-Ring) – a Grassfields language of Cameroon

Jonathan David Bobaljik: Universals in comparative morphology: Suppletion, superlatives and the structure of words

Editorial Report

LT since 2011