The Linguistics of Endangered Languages : Contributions to Morphology and Morphosyntax

Abstract

Within the remit of the general theoretical debate, the contribution of theory- directed data is crucially important to improve data-oriented theory formation. For any kind of theoretical linguistics, the discovery of new linguistic patterns is a matter of great importance, since the empirical validity of theoretical models is rightly put to the test continually by confrontation with the balance as it is actually found to exist between both the striking similarities between languages and the differences between them. If considered from this perspective, the usefulness of the study of languages that are at the edge of disappearance is self-evident. It is the shared hope of all the contributors to this book that the topics discussed here serve to emphasize the importance of data from endangered or dying languages to further develop the field of linguistics.