Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-r6c6k Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-06T23:09:43.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Descriptive Hypothesis Testing is Distinct from Comparative Hypothesis Testing: Commentary on Davis, Gillon, and Matthewson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Martin Haspelmath
Martin Haspelmath*
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
*
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Deutscher Platz 6 D-04105 Leipzig, Germany [haspelmath@eva.mpg.de]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'

Information

Type
Perspectives
Information
Language , Volume 90 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. e250 - e257
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abels, Klaus, and Neeleman, Ad. 2010. Nihilism masquerading as progress. Lingua (Special issue on Evans & Levinson 2009) 120. 12. 2657–60.Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix k., Dench, Alan; and Evans, Nicholas (eds.) 2006. Catching language: The standing challenge of grammar writing. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110197693CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar. 2013. Distributional biases in language families. Language typology and historical contingency (Typological studies in language 104), ed. by Bickel, Balthasar, Grenoble, Lenore A., Peterson, David A., and Timberlake, Alan, 415–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chelliah, Shobhana L., and de Reuse, Willem J.. 2011. Handbook of descriptive linguistic fieldwork. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-90-481-9026-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chung, Sandra. 2012. Are lexical categories universal? The view from Chamorro. Theoretical Linguistics 38. 1–56.10.1515/tl-2012-0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Henry, Gillon, Carrie; and Matthewson, Lisa. 2014. How to investigate linguistic diversity: Lessons from the Pacific Northwest. Language 90. 4.e180–e226.10.1353/lan.2014.0076CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dediu, Dan, and Ladd, D. Robert. 2007. Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and Microcephalin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104. 26. 10944–49. Online: http://www.pnas.org/content/104/26/10944.full.Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 1989. Large linguistic areas and language sampling. Studies in Language 13. 257–92.10.1075/sl.13.2.03dryCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 1992. The Greenbergian word order correlations. Language 68. 1. 81138.10.1353/lan.1992.0028CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 1997. Why statistical universals are better than absolute universals. Chicago Linguistic Society 33. 123–45.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas, and Levinson, Stephen C.. 2009. The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32. 5. 429–48.10.1017/S0140525X0999094XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, Nicholas, and Osada, Toshiki. 2005. Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes. Linguistic Typology 9. 3. 351–90.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Iren, Haspelmath, Martin; and Taylor, Bradley (eds.) 2013. Valency Patterns Leipzig: A database of valency information in 35 languages around the world. Leipzig: MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology. Online: http://valpal.info/.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2010a. Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in crosslinguistic studies. Language 86. 3. 663–87.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2010b. Framework-free grammatical theory. The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis, ed. by Heine, Bernd and Narrog, Heiko, 341–65. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2012a. How to compare major word-classes across the world's languages. Theories of everything: In honor of Edward Keenan (UCLA working papers in linguistics 17), ed. by Graf, Thomas, Paperno, Denis, Szabolcsi, Anna, and Tellings, Jos, 109–30. Los Angeles: UCLA.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2012b. Escaping ethnocentrism in the study of word-class universals. Theoretical Linguistics 38. 91–102.10.1515/tl-2012-0004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2014. Comparative syntax. The Routledge handbook of syntax, ed. by Carnie, Andrew, Sato, Yosuke, and Siddiqi, Dan, 490–508. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 2015. Defining vs. diagnosing linguistic categories: A case study of clitic phenomena. How categorical are categories? New approaches to the old questions of noun, verb and adjective, ed. by Błaszczak, Joanna, Klimek-Jankowska, Dorota, and Migdalski, Krzysztof. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, to appear.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin, Dryer, Matthew s., Gil, David; and Comrie, Bernard (eds.) 2005. The world atlas of language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Heath, Jeffrey. 1984. Functional grammar of Nunggubuyu. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C., and Evans, Nicholas. 2010. Time for a sea-change in linguistics: Response to comments on ‘The myth of language universals’. Lingua 120. 12. 2733–58.10.1016/j.lingua.2010.08.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michaelis, Susanne, Maurer, Philippe, Haspelmath, Martin; and Huber, Magnus (eds.) 2013. Atlas of pidgin and creole language structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shopen, Timothy (ed.) 2007. Language typology and syntactic description. 2nd edn. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vainikka, Anne, and Brattico, Pauli. 2014. The Finnish accusative: Long-distance case assignment under agreement. Linguistics 52. 1. 73–124.10.1515/ling-2013-0057CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Auwera, Johan, and Ammann, Andreas. 2005. Overlap between situational and epistemic modal marking. In Haspelmath, et al., 310–13.Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold Μ. 1985. Clitics and particles. Language 61. 2. 283–305.10.2307/414146CrossRefGoogle Scholar