Skip to main content
Log in

How can computer technologies help linguistic typology?

  • From the Researcher’s Notebook
  • Published:
Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The intensive development of computer linguistics in recent years shows that linguistic theories can be quite useful in solving various computer technology-associated problems. In particular, we mean information search and scanned text, or spam recognition. In turn, such technologies can be useful to solve purely linguistic tasks. This article exemplifies this statement by the Jazyki mira (Languages of the World) computer database, based on a series of monographs of the same name, prepared by the Department of Typology and Areal Linguistics of the RAS Institute of Linguistics under the general editorship of A.A. Kibrik.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. B. Comrie and N. Smith, The Lingua descriptive studies questionnaire. http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/toolsat-lingboard/questionnaire/lingua-descriptivedescription.php. 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Theoretical Foundations of the Classification of the Languages of the World, Vol. 1 (Nauka, Moscow, 1980); Vol. 2 (Nauka, Moscow, 1982) [in Russian].

  3. M. A. Zhurinskaya, A. I. Novikov, and E. I. Yaroslavtseva, Encyclopedic Description of Languages (Nauka, Moscow, 1986) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  4. V. A. Vinogradov, A. I. Novikov, and E. I. Yaroslavtseva, “The Languages of the World database as a linguistic research tool,” Vopr. Yazykoznaniya, No. 3 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  5. E. I. Yaroslavtseva, The Languages of the World computer database and its possible applications, Extended Abstract of Dr. Sci. (Philol.) Dissertation (RAS Institute of Linguistics, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  6. V. N. Polyakov and V. D. Solovyev, Computer Models and Methods in Typology and Comparativistics (KGU, Kazan, 2006) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  7. The World Atlas of Language Structures, Ed. by M. Haspelmath, M. S. Dryer, D. Gil, and B. Comrie (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  8. The Use of Databases in Cross-Linguistic Studies, Ed. by M. Everaert, S. Musgrave, and A. Dimitriadis (Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 2009).

    Google Scholar 

  9. V. D. Solovyev, “Typological databases: Application prospects,” Vopr. Yazykoznaniya, No. 1 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  10. J. Nichols, Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  11. V. M. Illich-Svitych, Experience of Comparing Nostratic Languages: A Comparative Dictionary, 3 vols. (Moscow, 1971–1984) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  12. M. Cysouw and B. Comrie, “How varied typologically are the languages of Africa?,” in The Cradle of Language, Ed. by R. Botha and C. Knight (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2009), vol. 2, pp. 189–203.

    Google Scholar 

  13. V. D. Solovyev, “Typological similarity of languages as a method to study linguistic evolution,” Vestn. RGGU, No. 16 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  14. J. Greenberg, “Diachrony, synchrony, and language universals,” in Universals of Human Language, Ed. by J. Greenberg, C. Ferguson, and E. Moravcsik (Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, 1978), Vol. 3: Word Structure, pp. 47–82.

    Google Scholar 

  15. V. D. Solovyev and R. F. Faskhutdinov, “Method of assessing the stability of grammatical properties,” Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Lit. Yazyka, No. 4 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  16. V. Polyakov, V. Solovyev, S. Wichmann, and O. Belyaev, “Using WALS and Jazyki Mira,” Linguistic Typology 13(2009).

  17. J. Nichols, “Diversity and stability in languages,” in The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Ed. by B. D. Joseph and R. D. Janda (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  18. W. Croft, Typology and Universals (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  19. S. Wichmann and E. Holman, Assessing Temporal Stability for Linguistic Typological Features (LIMCOM Europa, München, 2009). http://email.eva.mpg.de/~wichmann/WichmannHolmanIniSubmit.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  20. E. Maslova, “The dynamics of typological distributions and the stability of linguistic types,” Vopr. Yazykoznaniya, No. 5 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  21. N. S. Trubetzkoy, “The Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues,” in Eurasian Chronicle (Berlin, 1923), No. 3, p. 114 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  22. I. A. Nikolaeva and E. A. Khelimskii, “The Yukagir language,” in The Languages of the World: The Paleo-Siberian Languages (Indrik, Moscow, 1997) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  23. O. A. Mudrak, The language situation in northeastern Asia according to comparative-historical linguistics. http://starling.rinet.ru/confer/02-Mudrak.ppt

  24. Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary (Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, Moscow, 1990) [in Russian].

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valery Dmitrievich Solovyev.

Additional information

Original Russian Text © V.D. Solovyev, A.A. Kibrik, 2015, published in Vestnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 2015, Vol. 85, No. 1, pp. 32–38.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Solovyev, V.D., Kibrik, A.A. How can computer technologies help linguistic typology?. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 85, 33–39 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331615010062

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331615010062

Keywords

Navigation