Universals of Language Today

301 Pages·2009·5.65 MB·English

by  Paolo Ramat (auth.)

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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
www.springer.com/series/6559
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,
Rotterdam,TheNetherlands
ISBN:978-1-4020-8824-7 e-ISBN:978-1-4020-8825-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008932625
(cid:2)c SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2009
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted
inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recording
orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexception
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andexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.
Printedonacid-freepaper
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ToEdoardoVineis
amicitiaetuaememoresatquegrati
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