30.1590, Books: Explanation in typology: Schmidtke-Bode, Levshina, Michaelis, Seržant (eds.)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-1590. Thu Apr 11 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.1590, Books: Explanation in typology: Schmidtke-Bode, Levshina, Michaelis, Seržant (eds.)

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Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 22:49:56
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [Sebastian.Nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Explanation in typology: Schmidtke-Bode, Levshina, Michaelis, Seržant (eds.)

 


Title: Explanation in typology 
Subtitle: Diachronic sources, functional motivations and the nature of the evidence 
Series Title: Conceptual Foundations of Language Science  

Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: Language Science Press
	   http://langsci-press.org
	

Book URL: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/220 


Editor: Karsten Schmidtke-Bode
Editor: Natalia Levshina
Editor: Susanne Maria Michaelis
Editor: Ilja Seržant

Electronic: ISBN:  9783961101474 Pages: 278 Price: Europe EURO 0 Comment: Open Access


Abstract:

This volume provides an up-to-date discussion of a foundational issue that has
recently taken centre stage in linguistic typology and which is relevant to
the language sciences more generally: To what extent can cross-linguistic
generalizations, i.e. statistical universals of linguistic structure, be
explained by the diachronic sources of these structures? Everyone agrees that
typological distributions are the result of complex histories, as “languages
evolve into the variation states to which synchronic universals pertain”
(Hawkins 1988). However, an increasingly popular line of argumentation holds
that many, perhaps most, typological regularities are long-term reflections of
their diachronic sources, rather than being ‘target-driven’ by overarching
functional-adaptive motivations. On this view, recurrent pathways of
reanalysis and grammaticalization can lead to uniform synchronic results,
obviating the need to postulate global forces like ambiguity avoidance,
processing efficiency or iconicity, especially if there is no evidence for
such motivations in the genesis of the respective constructions. On the other
hand, the recent typological literature is equally ripe with talk of "complex
adaptive systems", "attractor states" and "cross-linguistic convergence". One
may wonder, therefore, how much room is left for traditional
functional-adaptive forces and how exactly they influence the diachronic
trajectories that shape universal distributions. The papers in the present
volume are intended to provide an accessible introduction to this debate.
Covering theoretical, methodological and empirical facets of the issue at
hand, they represent current ways of thinking about the role of diachronic
sources in explaining grammatical universals, articulated by seasoned and
budding linguists alike.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Typology


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=135393




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