The Use of Databases in Cross-Linguistic Studies (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [ealt], 41)

This book promotes the development of linguistic databases by describing a number of successful database projects, focusing especially on cross-linguistic and typological research. It has become increasingly clear that ready access to knowledge about cross-linguistic variation is of great value to many types of linguistic research. Such a systematic body of data is essential in order to gain a proper understanding of what is truly universal in language and what is determined by specific cultural settings. Moreover, it is increasingly needed as a tool to systematically evaluate contrasting theoretical claims. The book includes a chapter on general problems of using databases to handle language data and chapters on a number of individual projects. Frontmatter ......Page 2 Contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 Designing linguistic databases: A primer for linguists......Page 20 A typological database of personal and demonstrative pronouns......Page 84 Databases designed for investigating specific phenomena......Page 124 How to integrate databases without starting a typology war: The Typological Database System......Page 162 A contribution to ‘two-dimensional’ language description: the Typological Database of Intensifiers and Reflexives......Page 216 StressTyp: A database for word accentual patterns in the world’s languages......Page 242 The typological database of the World Atlas of Language Structures......Page 290 Typology of reduplication: The Graz database......Page 308 The Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS) database......Page 336 A database on personal pronouns in African languages......Page 370 Contributors ......Page 398 Index of subjects ......Page 401 Index of languages ......Page 408 Index of persons ......Page 413 Biographical note: Martin Everaert, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; Simon Musgrave, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; Alexis Dimitriadis, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands