Article published in:
Studies in Language
Vol. 46:1 (2022) ► pp. 133–160

Against trivializing language description (and comparison)

| Universität zu Köln
This paper argues that recent proposals to sharply distinguish between language description and comparison are ill-conceived for two reasons. First, comparison is unavoidable and hence an integral part of description. Second, the proposals for a strict separation are based on an unrealistic and anachronistic conception of descriptive categories, assuming that these can be defined in purely distributional terms. Here it is shown that description and comparison make use of, and struggle with, the same kind of empirical evidence; namely, crosslinguistically identifiable properties of grammatical formatives and constructions. If descriptive categories and crosslinguistic comparative concepts did not share such properties, language comparison would be devoid of empirical content. Hence claims that they are ontologically different do not stand up to further scrutiny. In short, said recent proposals portray language description and comparison in too-simplistic terms. They ignore, or at least downplay, most of the complexities involved in both descriptive and comparative projects, many of which in fact result from the inseparability of description and comparison.
Keywords: methodology, language comparison, language description, Wooi, pronominal articles
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On the inevitability of comparison
  • 3.Distributional analysis needs theoretical and substantive controls
  • 4.Language comparison does not need its own set of concepts
    • 4.1What is the problem with crosslinguistic comparative concepts?
    • 4.2Can language-specific categories and crosslinguistic cluster concepts be ontologically different?
    • 4.3Are crosslinguistic cluster concepts arbitrary?
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 12 April 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19090.him
References
Arnold, Laura
2017 A grammar of Ambel: An Austronesian language of Raja Ampat, west New Guinea. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh PhD disseration. Google Scholar
Auwera, Johan van der & Kalyanamalini Sahoo
2015 On comparative concepts and descriptive categories, such as they are. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 471. 136–173. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2018 Such similatives: A crosslinguistic reconnaissance. Language Sciences 811. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Beck, David
2016 Some language-particular terms are comparative concepts. Linguistic Typology 201. 395–402. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar
2007 Typology in the 21st century: Major current developments. Linguistic Typology 111. 239–251. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar & Johanna Nichols
2002 Autotypologizing databases and their use in fieldwork. In Austin, Peter, Helen Dry & Peter Witternburg (eds.), Proceedings of the International LREC Workshop on Resources and Tools in Field Linguistics, Las Palmas, 26 – 27 May 2002. Nijmegen: ISLE and DOBES. Available at http://​www​.autotyp​.uzh​.ch​/download​/canary​.pdf (last access 20 March 2021).
Bickel, Balthasar, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, Kamal K. Choudhary, Matthias Schlesewsky & Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
2015 The neurophysiology of language processing shapes the evolution of grammar: Evidence from case marking. PLoS ONE 10(8). e0132819. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca
1994 The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar
Carnie, Andrew
2008 Constituent structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1934 The non-uniqueness of phonemic solutions of phonetic systems. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 41. 36–397. Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
1976 Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
Corcoran, Katja, Jan Crusius & Thomas Mussweiler
2011 Social comparison: Motives, standards, and mechanisms. In Derek Chadee (ed.), Theories in social psychology, 119–139. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen
1985 Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Google Scholar
2016 Thoughts on language-specific and crosslinguistic entities. Linguistic Typology 201. 427–437. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, Michael & Edith Moravcsik
2013 The associative plural. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://​wals​.info​/chapter​/36 (last access 28 September 2019).
Dryer, Matthew
2018 The order of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun. Language 941. 798–833. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. & Martin Haspelmath
(eds) 2013 The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://​wals​.info (last access 30 January 2019).
Fowler, Michael
1952 Review of Harris 1951. Language 231. 504–509. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gil, David
2016 Describing languoids: When Incommensurability meets the language-dialect continuum. Linguistic Typology 201. 439–462. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H.
1963/66 Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of language, 73–113. Cambridge: MIT Press. Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos & Haike Jacobs
1998 Understanding phonology. London: Arnold. Google Scholar
Hagman, Roy S.
1977 Nama Hottentot grammar (Language Science Monograph 15). Bloomington: Indiana University. Google Scholar
Harris, Zellig
1951 Methods in structural linguistics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin
1993 A grammar of Lezgian. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in crosslinguistic studies. Language 861. 663–687. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2018 How comparative concepts and descriptive linguistic categories are different. In Daniël Van Olmen, Tanja Mortelmans & Frank Brisard (eds.), Aspects of linguistic variation, 83–114. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin and the APiCS Consortium
2013 Position of definite article in the noun phrase. In Susanne Maria Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath & Magnus Huber (eds.), The atlas of pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce
2009 Introductory phonology. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar
Heuvel, Wilco van den
2006 Biak: Description of an Austronesian language of Papua. PhD thesis Universiteit Leiden. Utrecht: LOT. Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P.
1997 Deiktikon, Artikel, Nominalphrase: Zur Emergenz syntaktischer Struktur. Tübingen: Niemeyer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001 Articles. In Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds.), Language typology and language universals, 831–841. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar
2016 What about typology is useful for language documentation? Linguistic Typology 201. 473–478. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P., Meytal Sandler, Jan Strunk & Volker Unterladstetter
2018 On the universality of intonational phrases in spontaneous speech – a crosslinguistic interrater study. Phonology 351. 207–245. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Holdcroft, David
1991 Saussure: Signs, systems, and arbitrariness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hymes, Dell & John Fought
1981 American structuralism. The Hague: Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Karubaba, Sara
2008 Ambai inflectional and derivational morphology. Leiden: University of Leiden Master’s thesis. Google Scholar
Kirihio, J. Karter, Volker Unterladstetter, Apriani Arilaha, Freya Morigerowski, Alexander Loch, Yusuf Sawaki & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann
2009–2015 DoBeS Wooi documentation. DoBeS Archive MPI Nijmegen. Available at http://​www​.mpi​.nl​/DOBES/ (last access 20 March 2020).
Kluge, Angela
2017 A grammar of Papuan Malay. Berlin: Language Science Press. Google Scholar
Lander, Yury & Peter Arkadiev
2016 On the right of being a comparative concept. Linguistic Typology 201. 403–416. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lazard, Gilbert
2002 Transitivity revisited as an example of a more strict approach in typological research. Folia Linguistica 361. 141–190. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lehmann, Christian
2002 Thoughts on grammaticalization (Arbeitspapiere des Seminars für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Erfurt 9). Second, revised edition. Erfurt: Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Erfurt. Available at https://​www​.christianlehmann​.eu​/publ​/ASSidUE09​.pdf (last access 20 March 2021).
2018 Linguistic concepts and categories in language description and comparison. In Marina Chini & Pierluigi Cuzzolin (eds.), Typology, acquisition, grammaticalization studies, 27–50. Milano: Franco Angeli. Google Scholar
Lyons, Christopher G.
1999 Definiteness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Michaelis, Susanne Maria, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath & Magnus Huber
(eds.) 2013 Atlas of pidgin and creole language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. http://​apics​-online​.info (last access 26 September 2019).
Moravcsik, Edith A.
2016 On linguistic categories. Linguistic Typology 201. 417–425. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mussweiler, Thomas & Kai Epstude
2009 Relatively fast! Efficiency advantages of comparative information processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 1381. 1–21. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Normand, Claudine
2004 System, arbitrariness, value. In Carol Sanders (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Saussure, 88–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pike, Kenneth L.
1947 Phonemics: A technique for reducing languages to writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik
1985 A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman. Google Scholar
Round, Erich R. & Greville G. Corbett
2020 Comparability and measurement in typological science: The bright future for linguistics. Linguistic Typology 241. 489–525. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sawaki, Yusuf W.
2016 A grammar of Wooi: An Austronesian language of Yapen Island, Western New Guinea. Canberra: Australian National University PhD dissertation. Google Scholar
Seiler, Hansjakob
2000 Language universals research – a synthesis. Tübingen: Narr. Google Scholar
Silverman, Daniel
2006 A critical introduction to phonology: Functional and usage-based perspectives. London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar
Spike, Matthew
2020 Fifty shades of grue: Indeterminate categories and induction in and out of the language sciences. Linguistic Typology 241. 465–488. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wells, Rulon S.
1947 De Saussure’s system of linguistics. WORD 31. 1–31. CrossrefGoogle Scholar