3. Main Parameters Modifying Subject matter and Branches of the Linguistic Typology Plan

3. Main Parameters Modifying Subject matter and Branches of the Linguistic Typology


Plan

1. Main parameters modifying the subject matter of linguistic typology.

2. Main parameters modifying the branches of linguistic typology.


Key words and expressions to lecture 3
1. Interlanguage contacts
2. System closeness
3. Genetic closeness
4. Areal limitation
5. Quantitative limitation
6. Deep and surface identity and non-identity
7. Identity of etic and emic units
8. Limitation and etalon language
9. Formal approach
10. Content approach
11. One-level approach
12. Cross-level approach
13. Perfectness of typological operations
14. Minimal limitation
15. Maximal limitation
16. Morphological means of expression
17. Phono-morphological means
18. Lexical means
19. Syntactic means

On the basis of analysis of works written by Russian and Foreign typologists such as Greenberg, Bondarko and others the following parameters modifying the subject matter and branches of linguistic typology were suggested.

1. System closeness
2. Genetic closeness
3. Areal limitation of compared languages
4. Quantitative limitation
5. Deep and surface identity and non-identity
6. Identity of etic and emic units
(Emic unit is a type of abstract objects analysed in linguistics and related fields. Kinds of emic units are generally denoted by terms with the suffix –eme (phoneme, grapheme and morpheme). An emic unit is defined by Nöth (1995) as “invariant” form obtained from the reduction of a class of variant forms to a limited number of abstract units. The variant forms are called etic units (from phonetic). This means that a given emic unit is considered to be a single underlying object that may have a number of different observable “surface” representations. The various etic units that represent a given emic unit of a certain kind are denoted by a corresponding term with the prefix allo-, such as allophone, allograph, allomorph (corresponding respectively to phoneme, grapheme, morpheme.) The relation between an emic unit and corresponding etic forms is sometimes called the allo/eme relationship.)
7. Limitation of etalon languages
8. Formal approach to comparison
9. Content approach to comparison
10. One-level approach to comparison
11. Cross-level approach to comparison
12. Perfectness of typological operations