Universals of Language Today (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory)

301 Pages·2008·5.25 MB·English

by  Sergio Scalise

UNIVERSALSOFLANGUAGETODAY
Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
VOLUME76
ManagingEditors
MarceldenDikken,CityUniversityofNewYork
LilianeHaegeman,UniversityofLille
JoanMaling,BrandeisUniversity
EditorialBoard
GuglielmoCinque,UniversityofVenice
CarolGeorgopoulos,UniversityofUtah
JaneGrimshaw,RutgersUniversity
MichaelKenstowicz,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
HildaKoopman,UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles
HowardLasnik,UniversityofMaryland
AlecMarantz,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
JohnJ.McCarthy,UniversityofMassachusetts,Amherst
IanRoberts,UniversityofCambridge
Forothertitlespublishedinthisseries,goto
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UNIVERSALS OF LANGUAGE
TODAY
Editedby
SERGIOSCALISE
UniversityofBologna,Italy
ELISABETTAMAGNI
UniversityofBologna,Italy
and
ANTONIETTABISETTO
UniversityofBologna,Italy
123
Editors
SergioScalise ElisabettaMagni
viaCartoleria,5 viaCartoleria,5
40124Bologna(BO) 40124Bologna(BO)
Universita`diBologna Universita`diBologna
Italy Italy
[email protected] [email protected]
AntoniettaBisetto
viaCartoleria,5
40124Bologna(BO)
Universita`diBologna
Italy
[email protected]
Frontcover: Castaneasativa,PhotographsuppliedbyJ.R.P.vanHoeySmith,ArboretumTrompenburg,
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ISBN:978-1-4020-8824-7 e-ISBN:978-1-4020-8825-4
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Preface
This book collects the contributions presented at the international congress held
at the University of Bologna in January 2007, where leading scholars of different
persuasionsandinterestsofferedanup-to-dateoverviewofthecurrentstatusofthe
researchonlinguisticuniversals.
The papers that make up the volume deal with both theoretical and empirical
issues,andrangeovervariousdomains,coveringnotonlymorphologyandsyntax,
whichwerethemajorfocusofGreenberg’sseminalwork,butalsophonologyand
semantics,aswellasdiachronyandsecondlanguageacquisition.
Diverse perspectives illustrate and discuss a huge number of phenomena from
awidevarietyoflanguages,notonlyexploringthewayresearchonuniversalsin-
tersects with different subareas of linguistics, but also contributing to the ongoing
debate between functional and formal approaches to explaining the universals of
language.
Thisstimulatingreadingforscientists,researchersandpostgraduatestudentsin
linguistics shows how different, but not irreconcilable, modes of explanation can
complement each other, both offering fresh insights into the investigation of unity
anddiversityinlanguages,andpointingtoexcitingareasforfutureresearch.
• A fresh and up-to-date survey of the present state of research on Universals of
Language in an international context, with original contributions from leading
specialistsinthefield.
• First-handaccountsofsubstantivefindingsandtheoreticalobservationsindiffer-
entsubareasoflinguistics.
• Huge number of linguistic phenomena and data from diffferent languages ana-
lyzedanddiscussedindetail.
• Essential reading for scientists, researchers and postgraduate students in
linguistics.
Universita` diBologna SergioScalise
Italy ElisabettaMagniandAntoniettaBisetto
vii
Contents
Introduction ....................................................... xiii
HowUniversalareLinguisticCategories?............................. 1
PaoloRamat
AnEmpiricalTestoftheAgglutinationHypothesis..................... 13
MartinHaspelmath
WhatLinguisticUniversalsCanbeTrueof............................ 31
AditiLahiriandFransPlank
UniversalsofProsodicStructure ..................................... 59
IreneVogel
LexicalIntegrityasaFormalUniversal:AConstructionistView......... 83
GeertBooij
SearchingforUniversalsinCompounding.............................101
EmilianoGuevaraandSergioScalise
UniversalsandFeatures.............................................129
GrevilleG.Corbett
MethodsforFindingLanguageUniversalsinSyntax ...................145
WilliamCroft
TheFundamentalLeft-RightAsymmetryofNaturalLanguages .........165
GuglielmoCinque
TheBranchingDirectionTheoryofWordOrderCorrelationsRevisited ..185
MatthewS.Dryer
ix
x Contents
UniversalsandSemantics ...........................................209
DenisDelfitto
TheEvolutionofLatinWord(Dis)order ..............................225
ElisabettaMagni
TypologicalUniversalsandSecondLanguageAcquisition...............253
AnnaGiacaloneRamat
LanguageIndex....................................................273
SubjectIndex ......................................................277
Contributors
GeertBooij
UniversityofLeiden
GuglielmoCinque
Ca’FoscariUniversity,Venice
GrevilleG.Corbett
SurreyMorphologyGroup
WilliamCroft
UniversityofNewMexico
DenisDelfitto
UniversityofVerona
MatthewS.Dryer
UniversityatBuffalo
EmilianoGuevara
UniversityofBologna
MartinHaspelmath
Max-Planck-Institutfu¨revolutiona¨reAnthropologie,Leipzig
AditiLahiri
UniversityofOxford
ElisabettaMagni
UniversityofBologna
FransPlank
Universita¨tKonstanz
AnnaGiacaloneRamat
UniversityofPavia
xi