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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman">Dear Corpora
colleages, I wonder if it is advisable to discuss global typological problems
concerning phonetic corpora. I completely agree with the colleagues who
think that other global corpora problems are possible. One of the global
typological problems is to measure the distances between the world languages on
some important features, and after that to establish language taxa on
phonetic level. Or am I wrong? It is not an important typological
problem? I wonder what the community of corpora typologists think to be
important typological problems? What is the scope of them? In the book by T.S.
Kuhn "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (Chicago Press, 1970), it is
emphacized that usually global paradigm problems are not discussed by scholars.
I have noticed it is especially true for linguistics. I tried to launch a
discussion on how linguists understand TYPOLY but received practically no
answers. I have also sent my request on the difference between LANGUAGE and
DIALECT from a typological point of view but could read only jokes about the
army and fleet. What I propose is to publish on line some interesting articles
online and to discuss them. Many journals are not available for my post gradutes
and me, so the discussion of this sort would be an eye opener. Besides, I
remember, when I was a post graduate in 1973, I wrote to some outstanding
linguists, like J. Greenberg. Their answers were very important for my further
typological studies. If we discuss the future ways for CORPORA and TYPOLOGY
to go, it shall be a good leading thread for the young typologists. If you have
ideas about my proposal, please, let's discuss them. I'd be thankful if you also
send me your messages directly to my email box <A
href="mailto:yutamb@mail.ru">yutamb@mail.ru</A> Yours sincerely phonetic
corpora typologist Yuri Tambovtsev, Novosibirsk,
Russia.</FONT><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>