Approaches To The Typology Of Word Classes (empirical Approaches To Language Typology)
by Bernard Comrie /
2000 / English / PDF
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The history of word class research is characterized by two extreme
positions. Up to the 19th century, it was believed that word
classes were invariably of the Latin or Greek type and universal.
In contrast to that, in the 20th century, the view prevailed that
every language had its own specific and unique word class system.
In the last decades, however, it has become apparent that despite
the large number of word classes and word class systems there are
typological restrictions with regard to the conceptualization of
semantic features and morphosyntactic structures. This text
approaches word classes and their categorial manifestations from
the perspective of typology and language universals research. The
authors in this volume discuss word class categorization in general
(Part I), as well as word classes and word class systems of
individual languages (Part II) from a typological-universal
viewpoint and from diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives.
The history of word class research is characterized by two extreme
positions. Up to the 19th century, it was believed that word
classes were invariably of the Latin or Greek type and universal.
In contrast to that, in the 20th century, the view prevailed that
every language had its own specific and unique word class system.
In the last decades, however, it has become apparent that despite
the large number of word classes and word class systems there are
typological restrictions with regard to the conceptualization of
semantic features and morphosyntactic structures. This text
approaches word classes and their categorial manifestations from
the perspective of typology and language universals research. The
authors in this volume discuss word class categorization in general
(Part I), as well as word classes and word class systems of
individual languages (Part II) from a typological-universal
viewpoint and from diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives.