At the crossroads of typology and language(s) in use

Abstract

A long-standing issue in linguistic typology concerns the relationship between cross-linguistic generalization and the empirical foundations on which such generalizations are built. The contributions assembled in this issue of Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads approach this question from complementary empirical and theoretical perspectives. On the one hand, several papers pursue typological analysis that is explicitly anchored in naturally occurring data, examining how cross-linguistic generalizations are affected when categories and comparisons are grounded in attested usage. On the other hand, the issue includes studies of intralinguistic variation—sometimes drawing on variationist sociolinguistic frameworks—that take variation itself as an empirical window onto grammatical organization; patterns of variation are used to formulate and test generalizations that bear on typological comparison and explanatory modeling. Together, these perspectives invite reflection on how typological generalizations are constructed, evaluated, and interpreted when both cross-linguistic and intralinguistic evidence are incorporated.