Comparative and (Micro-)Typological Approaches to the Analysis of Germanic Languages
Comparative and (Micro-)Typological Approaches to the Analysis of Germanic Languages
- Ekkehard KönigEkkehard KönigFree University of Berlin
Summary
Germanic languages (especially English, German) are among the best-described languages in the world and there is no shortage of studies on the ancestry of these languages, their subsequent differential developments and their characteristic properties reflecting this origin. Nor is there a shortage of synchronic studies with broad surveys of general features found in Germanic languages, in general, and of the specific properties found in individual members of this family. Given the important role of typology and other, more restricted, comparative approaches in current analyses and theorizing in linguistics, strikingly new insights can be gained by characterizing the Germanic family and its members from a comparative perspective. Instead of comparing the Germanic languages among themselves with the aim of finding shared characteristics, similarities, and differences, these languages can now be subjected to multiple comparisons with the aim of assessing their characteristic properties within large, representative samples of the world’s languages (typological comparison), within the languages of Europe (areal typology), or within other small convenience samples suitable to highlight specific contrasts (micro-typology). Moreover, contrastive analyses between pairs of this family can enable us to add depth of comparison to the breadth predominant in the more comprehensive comparative studies.
One of our central questions for current and future research on Germanic, therefore, is what kind of new insights into the characteristic properties of these languages have been gained, or can be gained, through different methods of comparison and the choice of different standards of comparison. What do cross-linguistic comparisons and fine-grained, in-depth studies reveal about the commonalities and difference between the members of this family? Reversing the direction of the comparisons, we can investigate possible contributions of Germanic linguistics to cross-linguistic studies, to the study of diversity, to the identification of parameters of variation, and to insights into general cross-linguistic tendencies.
Given that phonological and morphosyntactic properties have been the major focus of analyses so far and given recent advances in approaches to semantic analysis, more attention can now be given to semantics and the lexicon than is common in previous work. In addition to comparing grammatical structures, constructions, and subsystems, we are now also able to investigate in detail the differential encoding of meaning by comparable grammatical and lexical items.
Keywords
Subjects
- Language Families/Areas/Contact
- Semantics
- Syntax