Chapter published in:
Motion and Space across Languages: Theory and applications
Edited by Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
[Human Cognitive Processing 59] 2017
► pp. 399–418

Chapter 14
Applying language typology

Practical applications of research on typological contrasts between languages

| University of East Anglia

This chapter illustrates the benefits of applying insights from language typologies in order to afford better understanding of both theoretical and practical implications of language contrasts. It examines the practical consequences of certain typological contrasts for different professional contexts of communication, such as translation, second language acquisition and teaching, and the law. For the purpose of the present volume we focus on the cognitive domain of motion. Our analysis of the relevant motion event lexicalization phenomena is based on the three central criteria that underlie the research within Applied Language Typology (ALT): (i) presence versus absence of lexical and grammatical categories, (ii) more versus less restrictive lexical and grammatical categories, and (iii) complementarity in the distribution of categories. In this chapter, we discuss a select number of examples of lexicalization of motion and dynamic spatial relations (e.g. speaker and Figure positioning) across typologically different languages and we show how the ALT criteria enable us to identify exact points where language constrasts cause practical difficulty. Finally, we suggest future directions for ALT research that benefits both academic researchers and language practitioners alike.

Keywords: applied language typology, deixis, forensic linguistics, Serbian, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language typology, its relevance and applications
  • 3.Morphosyntactic typologies applied
  • 4.Applying semantic typology
  • 5.Typological applications: Forensic linguistics and translation
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 August 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.59.16fil
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