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<p>Dear typologists,</p>
<p>I'd like to announce the online publication of a new database of
grammatical terms with comparative-concept definitions and links
to related resources:</p>
<p><b>Haspelmath, Martin & Englisch, Johannes (eds.). 2026.
Grammaticon 1.0. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology. (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grammaticon.clld.org/">https://grammaticon.clld.org/</a>)</b></p>
<p>In addition to over 500 terms and their definitions
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grammaticon.clld.org/concepts">https://grammaticon.clld.org/concepts</a>), the Grammaticon lists
hundreds of typological features from online databases such as
Grambank and WALS (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grammaticon.clld.org/features">https://grammaticon.clld.org/features</a>),
providing links between these features and the Grammaticon
concepts. When the terms or definitions are different, the
Grammaticon comments on these differences (see the last column in
this table: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grammaticon.clld.org/features">https://grammaticon.clld.org/features</a>)</p>
<p>The intention is to update the Grammaticon regularly, so I
welcome comments!</p>
<p>A major inspiration for the Grammaticon was Johann-Mattis List's
Concepticon (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://concepticon.clld.org/">https://concepticon.clld.org/</a>, now with seven
co-authors). At about the same time, Bill Croft has been working
on a database of comparative concepts that is now available online
as well:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://comparative-concepts.github.io/cc-database/cc-database.html">https://comparative-concepts.github.io/cc-database/cc-database.html</a>
– on the Grammaticon site, there are systematic links to Croft's
definitions.</p>
<p>For more explanation of the background (including the notion of
"retro-definition"), see <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grammaticon.clld.org/about">https://grammaticon.clld.org/about</a>.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Martin</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/">https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/martin-haspelmath/</a></pre>
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