- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
- [UNTITLED]
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- The Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Setting the Stage
- The (Early) History of Linguistic Typology
- The Pioneers of Linguistic Typology: From Gabelentz to Greenberg
- Linguistic Typology and the Study of Language
- Explaining Language Universals
- The Problem of Cross-Linguistic Identification
- Language Sampling
- Markedness: Iconicity, Economy, and Frequency
- Competing Motivations
- Categories and Prototypes
- Implicational Hierarchies
- Processing Efficiency and Complexity in Typological Patterns
- Language Universals and Linguistic Knowledge
- Word Order Typology
- Word Classes
- Case-Marking Typology
- Person Marking
- Transitivity Typology
- Voice Typology
- Grammatical Relations Typology
- Typology of Tense, Aspect, and Modality Systems
- Syntactic Typology
- Morphological Typology
- Semantic Typology
- Typology of Phonological Systems
- Linguistic Typology and Historical Linguistics
- Linguistic Typology and Language Contact
- Linguistic Typology and First Language Acquisition
- Linguistic Typology and Second Language Acquisition
- Linguistic Typology and Language Documentation
- Linguistic Typology and Formal Grammar
- References
- Author Index
- Language Index
- Subject Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article outlines the typological variables that define or condition specific grammatical relations (GRs). It specifically discusses the relational roles and the referential properties of arguments. The article also reports the kinds of constructions that have GRs, and explores the interactions between GR definitions in different constructions. It then briefly addresses issues of worldwide distributions, and provides suggestions for future research. There is a common principle in the way referential features affect GR specifications. The properties of conjunction reduction are presented. The statistical evidence for referential hierarchy effects on case alignment is weak. GRs hold in constructions and not in languages. It is virtually impossible to estimate a priori which values on which variables will reveal significant clusters worldwide. The variables described in this article are meant to help in this work by providing a toolkit for comparing GRs across constructions in a single language, as well as across languages.
Keywords: grammatical relations, typological variables, arguments, constructions, worldwide distributions, conjunction reduction, referential hierarchy
Balthasar Bickel holds the chair of general linguistics in Zurich. His core interest are the regional and universal factors shaping the distribution of linguistic diversity over time. For this, Bickel applies methods ranging from the statistical analysis of typological databases and corpora to ethnolinguistic fieldwork and experimental methods. A special focus area is the Himalayas where Bickel has been engaged in interdisciplinary projects on endangered languages and developing and analyzing corpora of them.
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- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
- [UNTITLED]
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- The Contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- Setting the Stage
- The (Early) History of Linguistic Typology
- The Pioneers of Linguistic Typology: From Gabelentz to Greenberg
- Linguistic Typology and the Study of Language
- Explaining Language Universals
- The Problem of Cross-Linguistic Identification
- Language Sampling
- Markedness: Iconicity, Economy, and Frequency
- Competing Motivations
- Categories and Prototypes
- Implicational Hierarchies
- Processing Efficiency and Complexity in Typological Patterns
- Language Universals and Linguistic Knowledge
- Word Order Typology
- Word Classes
- Case-Marking Typology
- Person Marking
- Transitivity Typology
- Voice Typology
- Grammatical Relations Typology
- Typology of Tense, Aspect, and Modality Systems
- Syntactic Typology
- Morphological Typology
- Semantic Typology
- Typology of Phonological Systems
- Linguistic Typology and Historical Linguistics
- Linguistic Typology and Language Contact
- Linguistic Typology and First Language Acquisition
- Linguistic Typology and Second Language Acquisition
- Linguistic Typology and Language Documentation
- Linguistic Typology and Formal Grammar
- References
- Author Index
- Language Index
- Subject Index