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from Part IIIB - 1960–2000: Formalism, Cognitivism, Language Use and Function, Interdisciplinarity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2023
This chapter discusses the close interconnection between developments (1960-2000) in historical and universal-typological linguistics, in three general areas:
1. methodology and practice of reconstruction, with debates about comparative reconstruction and typological feasibility; establishment and reconstruction of distant genetic relationships; relation to cross-linguistic variation.
2. expression and interpretation of language universals: implicational universals and typological hierarchies; semantic maps, relating language-specific forms to universal semantic categories; representativeness: sampling methodology, distinction of linguistically motivated vs. accidental distributions; validity (strength) of universals; discussion about whether the only valid universals map function and form, resting on cognitive principles (iconicity, economy); interpretation of synchronic universals as by-products of diachronic principles, or as constraints on possible or (later) probable pathways of diachronic change or reconstruction (e.g., due to instability or low frequency of a given state), or as lying in the mechanisms of language change.
3. grammaticalization: first developments (1970s), intensified interest (1980s) and ‘real boom’ (1990s); phonological, morpho-syntactic, and semantic/pragmatic dimensions; co-evolution of meaning and form (Parallel Paths Hypothesis (PPH)); universal (reduced number of) pathways of diachronic change relating to various aspects of grammar; significant tool in reconstruction; much debate about, e.g., the unidirectionality of change, and the part played by ‘structural reanalysis’.
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