Chapter published in:
Typological Hierarchies in Synchrony and Diachrony
Edited by Sonia Cristofaro and Fernando Zúñiga
[Typological Studies in Language 121] 2018
► pp. 111–128

Deconstructing teleology

The place of synchronic usage patterns among processes of diachronic development

| University of California, Santa Barbara
A central issue in typology is the role of implicational hierarchies in shaping individual languages. One view is that the hierarchies guide language change, or at least constrain it: “Since a hierarchy constrains what is a possible language, it is also a constraint on language change, because languages move from one possible state to another” (Corbett 2011). Other approaches take a different perspective: “Hierarchies simply capture the outputs of independent diachronic processes” (Cristofaro & Zúñiga this volume). Here the relationship between typology and diachrony is examined with respect to the most frequently-cited hierarchies, the cluster of Referential/Topicality/Animacy/Empathy hierarchies. While such hierarchies might appear to drive diachronic development in some single-step changes, multi-step developments are a different matter.
Published online: 26 July 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.121.03mit
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Cited by other publications

Cristofaro, Sonia & Fernando Zúñiga
2018.  In Typological Hierarchies in Synchrony and Diachrony [Typological Studies in Language, 121], ► pp. 4 ff. Crossref logo
Rose, Françoise
2018.  In Typological Hierarchies in Synchrony and Diachrony [Typological Studies in Language, 121], ► pp. 289 ff. Crossref logo

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