Preface to the first edition

Summary

This volume is an introduction to the concepts and methodology of linguistic typology. It complements other introductory volumes on typology, particularly Comrie 1989 and Mallinson and Blake 1981, in that the material is organized by theoretical concept (implicational universal, markedness, prototype) rather than by topic area (word order, grammatical relations, relative clauses, animacy). Also, the range of concepts covered is somewhat broader, mostly because of the need to describe developments in functional–typological explanation and diachronic typology in the last decade. Needless to say, there is some overlap with the aforementioned volumes. From a pedagogical point of view, however, this volume is intended to complement, not supplement, the more topic-oriented introductions. In particular, breadth in theoretical coverage has meant that detailed examples of typological generalizations, complete with qualifications, possible counterexamples and explanations for those counterexamples, could not always be included (though I have tried not to oversimplify examples without at least citing more detailed studies). The material in this volume has been used in courses in conjunction with Comrie 1989, Greenberg 1966a (the original article on word order), Greenberg 1966b (the monograph on markedness) and other articles on more specific topic areas.

I believe that an essential part of any linguistics class, and above all any class on typology, is for the student to encounter one or more ‘exotic’ languages. For practical reasons, in an introductory typology class this encounter must be somewhat limited.