Diversity Linguistics: Quechua adjectives and the universality of word classes
October 12, 2013
One of my favorite new blogs on the linguistics scene is Diversity Linguistics Comment, which presents itself as
… a scholarly blog that discusses current issues in language typology and language description, written by linguists for other linguists. The notion of “diversity linguistics” recognizes the close connections between the enterprises of language comparison and analysis of particular languages. Topics include grammatical structures (syntax and morphology, phonology), language contact, language change in a comparative perspective, and genealogical linguistics.
Posts appear somewhat infrequently, but they are always substantive and interesting, often accompanied by equally meaty comment threads. As an example of the fare provided, consider Simeon Floyd’s recent post on Quechua adjectives (here), which engages with the debate over the universality of word classes, especially as this question intersects with descriptive linguistic practice. The post focuses on Simeon’s own work on Quechua adjectives, and Martin’s Haspelmath’s criticism of Simeon’s (and others’) conclusions. I find it to be a very thoughtful piece that provides a nice example of the subtle issues involved in applying putatively cross-linguistically valid labels like ‘adjective’ to language-specific word classes, and also shows how attention to naturally-occurring discourse can play a crucial role in grammatical analysis.
