The Use of Databases in Cross-Linguistic Studies

Edited by Martin Everaert, Simon Musgrave, and Alexis Dimitriadis.

This book promotes the development of linguistic databases by describing a number of successful database projects, focusing especially on cross-linguistic and typological research. Such a systematic body of data is essential in order to gain a proper understanding of what is truly universal in language and what is determined by specific cultural settings. Moreover, it is increasingly needed as a tool to systematically evaluate contrasting theoretical claims. The book includes a chapter on general problems of using databases to handle language data and chapters on a number of individual projects. 409 Seiten, gebunden (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology; Vol. 41/Mouton de Gruyter Verlag 2009)