Typology and Universals [Paperback]

A thorough rewriting to reflect advances in typology and universals in the past decade.William Croft presents a comprehensive introduction to the method and theory used in studying typology and universals. The second edition of this essential textbook has been thoroughly rewritten and updated to reflect advances in typology and universals in the past decade, including: new methodologies such as the semantic map model and questions of syntactic argumentation; discussion of current debates over deeper explanations for specific classes of universals; and comparison of the typological and generative approaches to language.William Croft presents a comprehensive introduction to the method and theory used in studying typology and universals. The second edition of this essential textbook has been thoroughly rewritten and updated to reflect advances in typology and universals in the past decade, including: new methodologies such as the semantic map model and questions of syntactic argumentation; discussion of current debates over deeper explanations for specific classes of universals; and comparison of the typological and generative approaches to language.The second edition of this essential textbook has been thoroughly rewritten and updated to reflect advances in typology and universals over the past decade. It reviews new methodologies such as the semantic map model and questions of syntactic argumentation; discussion of current debates over explanations for specific classes of universals; and comparison of the typological and generative approaches to language.1. Introduction; 2. Typological classification; 3. Implicational universals and competing motivations; 4. Grammatical categories: typological markedness; 5. Grammatical hierarchies and the semantic map model; 6. Prototypes and the interaction of typological patterns; 7. Syntactic argumentation and syntactic structure in typology; 8. Diachronic typology; 9. Typology as an approach to language.