16.3303, Review: Typology/Ling Theory: Frajzyngier et al. (2005)

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3303. Wed Nov 16 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.3303, Review: Typology/Ling Theory: Frajzyngier et al. (2005)

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org) 
        Sheila Dooley, U of Arizona  
        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Lindsay Butler <lindsay at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
Book Discussion Forum. We expect discussions to be informal and 
interactive; and the author of the book discussed is cordially 
invited to join in. If you are interested in leading a book 
discussion, look for books announced on LINGUIST as "available 
for review." Then contact Sheila Dooley at dooley at linguistlist.org. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 15-Nov-2005
From: Solveiga Armoskaite < solvei1 at interchange.ubc.ca >
Subject: Linguistic Diversity and Language Theories 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:27:21
From: Solveiga Armoskaite < solvei1 at interchange.ubc.ca >
Subject: Linguistic Diversity and Language Theories 
 

EDITORS: Frajzyngier, Zygmunt, Hodges, Adam, Rood, Davis S.
TITLE: Linguistic Diversity and Language theories
SERIES: Language Companion Series 72  
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins Publishing Company  
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-863.html 

Solveiga Armoskaite, Graduate Student, Department of Linguistics, University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

SYNOPSIS

Chapter 1 What are we typologists doing?  Gilbert Lazard reaffirms 
the importance of the typology in linguistics for only thus can we prove 
the scientific value of the linguistic endeavour.  Lazard argues that the 
nature of cross-linguistic invariants is at heart of the typological 
research. For him, invariants are neither forms nor meanings 
(Saussurean 'signifiants' and 'signifiés').  It must be located at a more 
abstract level, namely: these are the relationships appearing in the 
correlation between forms and meanings.  One of the major problems 
of the typological comparison is lack of reliable methodology. Lazard 
rejects both the use of linguistic categories (language specific) and 
semantic substance (too amorphous). Instead, he argues that intuition 
is the way out and advocates ACF, 'arbitrary conceptual frameworks' 
as the point of departure for typological research.  Lastly, Lazard 
critically evaluates the relationship between the typological linguistics 
and cognitive science and concludes that it would not '...be a scandal 
to say that in the present state of things, the potential contribution of 
linguistics to cognitive sciences is more important than the reverse.'

Chapter 2 The canonical approach in typology.  Here, Greville Corbett 
discusses the canonical approach to typology. Following Chomsky, 
the aim is to define the notion of possible human language. Under this 
view, the author takes the linguistic definitions (e.g. agreement) to 
their logical endpoints and builds theoretical spaces of possibilities. 
Only then the actual linguistic data is checked to verify how this 
theoretical space is actually populated. The canonical data 
('best', 'clearest' prototypes of particular linguistic elements) is not 
necessarily the most pervasive and may not be found in natural 
languages altogether. The major part of the chapter is devoted to the 
specifics of the implementation of the canonical approach, e.g. 
construction of the typological database.

Chapter 3 What is an empirical theory of linguistic meaning a theory 
of?  Pierre-Yves Raccah addresses the broad issue of how scientific 
theories work. Contrary to the commonsensical views, science does 
not directly account for the 'laws of nature' but rather indirectly 
explains how a particular theory describes and predicts the 
phenomenon it is supposed to account for. Our only access to the 
world is indirect, limited by the capacity of our cognitive apparatus.  
These limitations affect the study of linguistics. Thus, the meaning in 
natural languages can be the object of an empirical science only 
indirectly. We have no access to truth conditional semantic meaning, 
but we can study the set of constraints that words and structures in a 
particular language impose on the construction of meaning of the 
utterances, concludes Raccah.

Chapter 4 Language processes, theory and description of language 
change, and building on the past.  This chapter by Robert Nicolai 
stands out due to the particularly hard questions and entrenched 
viewpoints it calls to re-evaluate. Faced with a controversial genetic 
classification of Songhay language as Nilo-Saharan, Nicolai questions 
the theoretical and practical tools available for language classification. 
Must we accept that linguistic processes can be correctly 
apprehended only on the a priori hypothesis of one homogenous 
structural system? Is monolingualism to be taken as normal state of 
affairs? Nicolai invites us to consider the use of real or virtual 
multilingual/multidialectal factors as normal theoretical parameters in 
building models of language evolution.

Chapter 5 On the part played by human conscious choice in language 
structure and language evolution.  Due to the impressive range of the 
sources and issues covered, it is impossible to give justice to the 
chapter contributed by Claude Hagege. In a nutshell, the author 
argues that ordinary language users, grammarians and even 
politicians consciously shape the evolution of the language. Thus, 
concludes Hagege, one should not take for granted the common view 
that linguistic classifications never rises into consciousness. 

Chapter 6 The challenge of polygrammaticalization for linguistic 
theory: fractal grammar and transcategorial functioning.  The chapter 
contributed by Stephane Robert reads easily, as any linguist is bound 
to experience the sense of déjà vu given the topic: the behavior of 
transcategorial morphemes, i.e. linguistic units used synchronically in 
different syntactic categories. Time and again we come to grips with 
the topic (cf. Jespersen 1924, Arad 2003 among many, many others), 
yet the definite account proves to be elusive.  Robert proposes a 
dynamic analysis that relates the polysemy of these morphemes to the 
syntactic flexibility. First, the syntactic category of the linguistic 
element emerges as a result of its immediate context (or co-text, 
utterance environment). Next, the syntactic variation triggers variation 
in its semantic scope and activation of contextual properties. In order 
analyze the fine details of a transcategorial morpheme, Robert works 
out a certain scale (or: the common schematic form) that sums up its 
uses and senses and shows how the morpheme functions as a 
landmark within the utterance. This schematic form is not to be 
confused with a semantic feature; it serves as a matrix for the 
construal of new meanings when mapped onto new domains.  The 
author concludes questioning the status of the grammatical categories 
in the light of the transcategorial morphemes.

Chapter 7 On discourse frequency, grammar and grammaticalization.  
Regina Pustet seeks to revive the interest in the work of George 
Kingsley Zipf (1902-1950), who is remembered for discovering for the 
presumably universal statistical correlation between the discourse 
frequency of linguistic items and their structural complexity or length. 
Pustet reminds that Zipf also established statistical correlation 
between discourse frequency and semantic complexity. However the 
said correlations were used to study lexical items. It comes as a 
natural next step to apply Zipf' s method to the study of 
grammaticalization, argues Pustet.

Chapter 8 On the assumption of the sentence as the basic unit of 
syntactic structure.  Marianne Mithun elegantly argues that the status 
of the sentence as the basic privileged unit maybe overrated in the 
light of cross-linguistic data. Linguistic structure goes beyond the 
sentence into the realm of discourse.  Mithun discusses switch 
reference markers in Hualapai (Yuman family): their use at the 
sentence level for marking syntactic relations among clauses and 
exploited to signal cohesion in a larger discourse unit. The author also 
reviews the rationale behind the choice between the two markers and 
their probable origins.  Although the article is generously supplied with 
interesting data, a more detailed morpheme break up in the longer 
narratives would be appreciated by a curious reader.

Chapter 9 Adpositions as a non-universal category.  On the basis of 
crosslinguistic evidence from several languages and Klamath in 
particular, Scott DeLancey reasons that there is no useful sense in 
which the category of adposition can be considered a linguistic 
universal.  Klamath proves to be an interesting case for the debate. It 
offers a singleton category candidate for adposition while other 
adpositional functions can be integrated into e.g., certain kind of 
compound verbs.  In sum, the function of adpositions is always 
present in any language, but it's expression cross-linguistically is in 
flux.

Chapter 10 Understanding antigemination.  Juliette Blevins advocates 
for Evolutionary Phonology approach in the attempt to explain the 
phenomenon of antigemination (instances of blocking gemination).  
Alternative approaches by McCarthy (1986) and Odden (1988) are 
weakened by the operation of the tier conflation and suggestion that 
OCP is not a component of Universal Grammar respectively.  Blevins' 
Evolutionary Phonology working hypothesis is that common sound 
patterns result from common phonetically motivated sound change. 
According to Blevins, it provides a simpler solution for antigemination. 
Sequences of identical consonants will more readily resist re-
interpretation as geminates in languages with pre-existing 
consonantal length contrast, and it will belong to a class of natural 
histories. In languages where pre-existing length contrasts are absent, 
the antigemination processes will fall into the class of unnatural 
histories. 

Chapter 11 What it means to be rare: the variability of person 
marking.  Michael Cysouw calls to bring up to date the relationship 
between linguistic variability and the explanatory power of linguistic 
theory. His research is motivated by the question: how much of 
linguistic variation should be explained by a theory for it to be 
considered sufficient or good?  Cysouw does not offer solutions but 
he sure raises good questions. For example,  methodological 
concerns are a challenge in itself. Cysouw states that his collection of 
person marking cases is rather ad hoc; but the general tendency in 
typology is to sample the most common cases and leave out the 
uncommon ones. It is hard to develop a procedure for sampling 
possible, yet rare, cases.

Chapter 12 The principle of Functional Transparency in language 
structure and in language evolution.  Zygmunt Frajzyngier's 
Functional Transparency refers to functional domains coded in the 
language.  Frajzyngier first discusses the three components of the 
principle: i) every utterance has a transparent role in discourse; ii) 
every constituent has a transparent role within the utterance; iii) the 
choice of the role of the constituent is dictated by the functional 
domains coded in the language rather than by addressee's needs to 
understand the role of the constituent in some real world.  Next, the 
author identifies and exemplifies the coding means available across 
languages (not necessarily in every language). These are: lexicon 
(especially where lexical items encode inherent constituent information 
like 'verb'), linear order, adpositional coding, conjunctions and 
other 'function' words, inflectional coding, phonological means.  The 
systems proposed by Frajzyngier appears to be elegant and 
straightforward, but it is not immediately obvious how would the author 
address the issues such as the role and impact of context, ambiguity, 
multifunctional morphemes and the like.

Chapter 13 The importance of discourse analysis for linguistic theory.  
Liang Tao promotes a usage based discourse analysis in the study of 
language and cognition based on her exhaustive study of Mandarin 
Chinese classifier system. The paper is based on a solid corpus of 
data from both spoken and written discourse, something which the 
previous analysis neglected to consider.  Based on the advances in 
cognitive processes, Tao builds on the assumption that grammatical 
patterns reflect human observations of the physical world around 
them. However, while cognitive representations may be constant, the 
linguistic coding systems change over time. Phono-syntactic 
conspiracy describes the case in point: the dynamic, ever changing 
phenomenon of Mandarin Chinese numeral classifier system. 

Chapter 14 Compounding theories and linguistic diversity.  Anders 
Søgard provides an overview of existing theories on compounding 
only to conclude that most of them are Euro-centric and fail to predict 
productive patterns of compounding attested in non-European 
languages.  Drawing on typological data and fusing together findings 
highlighted by diverse linguistic theories, Søgard puts forward his 
theory: the construction hierarchy of compounding. The hierarchy is 
comprised of distinct but interrelated levels of more or less schematic 
constructions, where every level is associated with conventional 
specific formal or semantic features (e.g., phonology, argument 
structure, event structure.. and the like). Søgard's original contribution 
is that the hierarchy allows for the gradience between literal, 
metonymical and metaphorical relatedness as well as finds a place for 
discourse component.

Chapter 15 Inalienability and possessum individuation.  To Frantisek 
Lichtenberk, one of the challenges of linguistics is to investigate the 
interplay between functional/cognitive factors and language 
structures. In this light, he provides an engaging analysis of (in)
alienable possessum constructions in Toqabaqita (Oceanic) 
language.  The general pattern is that constructions in which an affix 
indexing the possessor appears  on the possessum noun encode 
inalienable possession (synthetic means), while  constructions with 
possessive classifiers express alienable possession (periphrastic 
means). Lichtenberk focuses on the cases where the same noun can 
occur in both constructions. The main factor here, argues Lichtenberk, 
is that of possessum individuation: the distinctness of an entity from its 
own background, specifically the distinctness of the possessum from 
the possessor. When the inalienable possessum is not individuated
('my eye'), the synthetic possessive construction is used; if the 
possessum is individuated ('my left eye', 'my this eye'), the periphrastic 
construction is used. 

Chapter 16 Resultativeness in English.  Marina Gorlach reflects on 
resultative constructions in English as manifested by V NP Prt 
(marked: resultative) versus V Prt NP (unmarked: ambiguous between 
resultative/non-resultative interpretations). Her goal is to establish the 
category of resultativness as a linguistic universal.  The most 
interesting part of the discussion is her data where the two English 
phrasal constructions -- the marked and the unmarked one -- are 
compared in the light of text translations into Russian. Gorlach shows 
that there is correlation between the English V NP Prt resultative 
interpretation and the use of perfective forms in translation to Russian.

Chapter 17 Encoding speaker perspective: evidentials.  Based on 
cross-linguistic data, Ferdinand de Haan argues that evidentiality is a 
deictic rather than a modal category. De Haan painstakingly goes 
through a variety of evidential expressions -- visual, inferential, 
auditory, quotative -- to establish that evidentiality asserts the 
evidence while epistemic modality evaluates it. Based on the 
discussion, he proposes to add evidentiality to category deixis as an 
example of propositional deixis. The author does not deny the relation 
between the evidentiality and epistemic modality, but such a 
relationship is considered to be secondary. 

Chapter 18 Distinguishing between referential and grammatical 
function in morphological typology.  Edward Vajda tackles the question 
of the fallacies in the traditional morphological typology (division of 
languages into analytic, synthetic and polysynthetic). He first points 
out the gaps and inconsistencies of the system and then suggests a 
model of 'Holistic Grammar'.  Vajda's model aims to replace the fuzzy 
notions of derivation and inflection with clear cut dichotomies between 
referential, discourse and phrasal functions subdivided into their 
possible head vs. modifier roles. The resultant grid is when applied to 
the case study of Ket (endangered isolate in Central Siberia).

EVALUATION

The book offers a smorgasbord of current theoretical approaches to a 
variety of linguistic topics. It succeeds in identifying the "... unstated or 
understated fundamental issues in linguistic theory..." which the 
editors of the volume named as the main purpose of the International 
Symposium on Linguistic Diversity and Language Theories, the basis 
for the volume.  Due to the number of articles and the wealth of issues 
covered it is impossible to single out a few for a close evaluation. 
Instead, I would rather single out a few reoccurring topics.  In terms of 
theory, functionally and cognitively driven approaches stand out, with 
a few digressions into the emergent or dynamic view of grammar. 
Functionalists present clearly defined claims that easily lend 
themselves to further debate, whether one happens to agree or 
disagree. Efforts to anchor linguistics cognitively come across more as 
assumptions taken from the realm of psychology and are therefore 
difficult to evaluate within linguistic context.  The issue of exceptional 
and/or rare linguistic patterns and how linguistic theories aimed at 
regularity deal with it is another particularly interesting topic that 
several authors address. The conclusions reached vary as much as 
the data they are based upon. The concern about typological 
methodology is another prominent question that keeps re-surfacing 
throughout the articles. The authors ponder such issues as lack of 
methodological uniformity or some standard basis for cross-linguistic 
comparison, inadequacy of terminology used, and a priori theoretical 
assumptions that interfere with interpretation of data.  Overall, it is a 
worthwhile book where everyone can find something to enjoy. 
Especially if you hit rock bottom and need a challenging linguistic 
question or two, look no further. 

REFERENCES

Arad, M. 2003. Locality constraints on the interpretation of roots: the 
case of Hebrew denominal verbs. Natural Language and Linguistic 
Theory 21: 737-778.

Jespersen, O. 1924. The philosophy of grammar. London: George 
Allen & Unwin.  Odden. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Solveiga Armoskaite is a graduate student at University of British 
Columbia. Syntax-semantics interface of aspect, typology, and 
language documentation/preservation are her main interests.  She 
works on Lithuanian, Cree and Blackfoot.





-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3303