The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology

This handbook provides a critical state-of-the-art overview of work in linguistic typology. It examines the directions and challenges of current research and shows how these reflect and inform work on the development of linguistic theory. It describes what typologists have revealed about language in general and discovered (and continue to discover) about the richly various ways in which meaning and expression are achieved in the world's languages.

Typological research extends across all branches of linguistics. The degree to which the characteristics of language are universal or particular is crucial to the understanding of language and its relation to human nature and culture. This book is an essential source of reference for linguists of all theoretical persuasions. It is a vital companion for all those working in linguistic typology or undertaking linguistic fieldwork on one or more languages.

Jae Jung Song is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Otago. His books include Causatives and Causation: A Universal-Typological Perspective (Addison Wesley Longman 1996); Case, Typology and Grammar, co-edited with Anna Siewierska (Benjamins 1998); Linguistic Typology: Morphology and Syntax (Pearson 2001); The Korean Language: Structure, Use and Context (Routledge 2005); and Frontiers of Korean Language Acquisition (Saffron Books 2006). He has held visiting appointments with Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), and La Trobe University (Melbourne).