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In:Linguistic Categories, Language Description and Linguistic Typology
Edited by Luca Alfieri, Giorgio Francesco Arcodia and Paolo Ramat
[Typological Studies in Language 132] 2021
► pp. 249–278

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Chapter 7
Essentials of the unityp research project

Attempt of an overview

 | University of Zurich | University of Cologne
 | University of Zurich | University of Cologne
 | University of Zurich | University of Cologne
Published online: 9 July 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.132.07sei
This contribution surveys the insights of ‘unityp’ (Language Universals and Typology), a research project initiated and led by Hansjakob Seiler from 1973 until 1992 and further developed by him until 2017. First, an overview of essential concepts and the architecture of the unityp model is given. Of central importance are three levels of research: cognitive-conceptual, general comparative grammar, and individual languages. Then the conceptual and methodological implications are demonstrated by selected analyses. These comprise a summary of Seiler’s latest ‘works in progress’ concerning Identification as well as an application of the crucial abductive method in cross-linguistic investigation, exemplified by the object relation and number.
Article outline
  • 0.Preliminary remarks
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Some essential concepts of unityp
    • 2.1Driving force
    • 2.2Premise (functional setting)
    • 2.3Function
    • 2.4Continua/dimensions
    • 2.5Three areas of research (hierarchical levels)
    • 2.6The three levels and the question of descriptive and comparative categories
  • 3. unityp in progress: New aspects and notions
  • 4.Categories and concepts: In memoriam Hansjakob Seiler
    • 4.1Object relation: Bottom-up procedures and abduction
    • 4.2Number and quantification: Abductive methodology and hermeneutic circle
  • Notes
  • References
References (61)
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