Language Universals Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology

by Bernard Comrie

Adopting an approach to the subject pioneered by Greenberg and others, Professor Comrie is particularly concerned with syntactico-semantic universals. The book has chapters on word order, case marking, relative clauses and causative contruction and is informed throughout by the conviction that an explanatory account of universal properties of human language cannot restrict itself to purely formal aspects. It must also take account of language use and relate formal properties to testable claims about cognition and cognitive development. This new edition has been revised to take account of new research in universals and typology in the past decade and applies its findings to the problems of generative grammatical theory.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Reference

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Irene]

A must for any linguists, specially a syntactician.

[agn]

Not enough glossaries, which meant that I had to infer from the given (often poor) information whether one term was a verb or a noun or something else. Not sure why my professor thinks this, among many other manuals, is the best to study typology from, though I do credit it for touching more subjects and languages than I would have expected it to, but I can assuredly say that it could have been written... slightly better. Particularly because understanding the meaning of each separate element of a given sentence is a key component of linguistic understanding. If I don't know whether a term is a verb or a noun and I'm then given a sentence that, apparently, means "This can also be said like this", but I'm not given, in either case, a glossary as to understand which word means what, I cannot understand what was changed exactly, beyond seeing these unfamiliar words and seeing that they now have a different structure—but what does that structure mean?

The analysis provided is interesting, though in some places the information is incomplete (particularly when referring to Berlin and Kay's studies on basic color terms, which include up to 11 terms—and it cannot be said that Comrie's omission comes from wanting to identify only the basic non-composite terms, because he includes Brown, which is already Yellow+Black and thus a composite term, meaning that he should have mentioned Pink, Purple, Orange and Grey too; I will grant him the benefit of the doubt because Pink, Purple, Orange and Grey do all appear AFTER Brown, and their order of appearance is somewhat unclear, but considering the publication date of this manual, and Berlin and Kay's studies, I would assume he'd mention these four extra terms too). Either way, it's obvious he never meant to make an analysis and exposition too extensive, and given what's provided in the text, I feel comfortable enough to say I have understood the Principles of language universal and typology.

[Rhomboid Goatcabin]

A thorough and expert introduction to typology by one of the paragons of the field. Though perhaps too detailed to be an introductory volume per se, initiates to the field will find a treasure trove of material and authoritative appraisals and criticism of typological approaches.

[Othman]

must-read for prospective syntacticians and morphologists. it could've been written better, though; some sections are well organized, and others are all over the place.

[Carlos]

I liked this book because it has come the closest to fulfilling my search for a general-reader-friendly book on linguistics. Comrie starts the book with the best explanation I have ever read on the importance of cross-linguistic research and the way in which this cannot be replaced with an in-depth analysis of a handful of languages if one seeks to understand the universal aspects of language. In his discussion of universal language traits Comrie illustrates some fascinating aspects of language such as the use of declensions to denote levels of control of the action described, the grammatical indication of a sentence’s focus without the use of intonation variations and even how different languages address the specific difference between a sentence’s topic and its subject. Similarly the inclusion of a world map of the languages cited allows the general reader to visually appreciate the richness of human language. However, having said all this I would be remiss not to point out that Comrie’s extensive use of over-specific linguistic terms and his habit of hurriedly explaining some of his examples do make the book a bit harder on the reader than it would have to be. Nonetheless, the interested reader can overcome this difficulties to appreciate the insights that Comrie has to offer if one has enough patience to re-read key parts of his explanations. Although my search for a linguistics book aimed at an interested but non-expert reader still continues I would certainly recommend this book, though perhaps to someone with at least a basic training in linguistics.

[Gaston Dorren]

This is a book by an eminent linguist who most obviously knows what he's talking about. Such a pity his stylistic and narrative skills are negligible, which makes reading it a chore instead of the pleasure it could have been.

[Isk]

Ugh, the book really drags. Not well-organized.