Typology

by

Robert Henderson, Cheyenne Wing

• LAST REVIEWED: 20 March 2024
• LAST MODIFIED: 24 July 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0041

Introduction

Typology is used to cover two related types of investigations: (1) classifying languages based on shared grammatical properties that are not attributable to genealogical inheritance, and (2) identifying patterns in the distribution of grammatical properties across languages. Georg von der Gabelentz was the first to use the word “typology” to describe a discipline in this first sense, though typological thinking goes back hundreds of years before. Typology in the second sense, which is what dominates the modern typological literature, grows out of work by Joseph H. Greenberg on word order correlations (or universals). Universals are important because they allow for classifications of languages, but they are facts about human languages that need explanation. For this reason, typology has played an important part in linguistic theory, which aims to explain the range of possible human languages and why human languages are the way they are. Given its theoretical importance and the fact that almost any aspect of human language can be studied typologically, typology is a broad discipline that is of importance to every subfield of linguistics.

Reference Works

All broad linguistic encyclopedias include entries on typology as well as typological studies of individual languages and language families. The best of these are Crystal 2010, Brown 2006, and Frawley 2003, which are lengthy and comprehensive. In addition, there are a few encyclopedias and handbooks dedicated to typology. Aikenvald and Dixon 2017 and Haspelmath, et al. 2001 are the most exhaustive reference works in typology. Greenberg, et al. 1978 is a four-volume collection, with three volumes focusing on empirical domains of typology: syntax, phonology, and morphology. The first volume is dedicated to historical and methodological concerns. Although it is not exactly a reference work, because it contains original research, the coverage is encyclopedic and represents a large swath of early modern typological research. Song 2011 is a series of critical overviews. It treats the empirical results of typological study, while also covering the history of typology and issues in typological theory, as well as the connection between typology and related disciplines.

• Aikenvald, Alexandra Y., and R. M. W. Dixon, eds. 2017. The Cambridge handbook of linguistic typology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  An extensive three-part reference book covering a multitude of topics in linguistic typology including the typological study of sign languages, which is often overlooked in works of linguistic typology.

• Brown, Keith, ed. 2006. Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. 2d ed. Boston: Elsevier.

  A huge fourteen-volume reference work. Contains a section of short articles devoted to typology and universals, as well as typological descriptions of languages and language areas.

• Crystal, David. 2010. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. 3d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  Reviews changes in language typology from 1990 to 2010. Includes development of digital language as well as the declining use of minority languages.

• Frawley, William J., ed. 2003. International encyclopedia of linguistics. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

  Contains thorough introductions to typology and issues relevant to typology.

• Greenberg, Joseph H., Charles Ferguson, and Edith A. Moravcsik, eds. 1978. Universals of human language. 4 vols. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.

  This four-volume set is the result of the Stanford Language Universals Research Project. Though older than the other works in this section, this book is still relevant and covers syntactic, morphological, and phonological typology, as well as the history of typology and typological methodology.

• Haspelmath, Martin, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher, and Wolfgang Raible, eds. 2001. Language typology and language universals: An international handbook. 2 vols. Berlin: de Gruyter.

  DOI: 10.1515/9783110171549.2

  This two-volume set is huge, containing more than a hundred articles on both empirical and theoretical aspects of typology. A great first stop when starting a research project on any linguistic phenomena. Also has an extensive bibliography.

• Song, Jae Jung, ed. 2011. The Oxford handbook of linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

  The most recent overview of typology as a field, this work has less on empirical results in linguistic typology and more on its historical, methodological, and theoretical underpinnings. Also has a section on the relationship between typology and other areas of linguistic investigation.