Book review

The World Atlas of Language Structures

Martin Haspelmath, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil, and Bernard Comrie (eds.) 2005. The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Reviewed by: Natalya I. Stolova, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Colgate University

One of the main research goals of linguists interested in typology is to establish the distribution of different values for structural linguistic features. The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) was created precisely to provide this kind of information. For example, a typologist may want to know how a structural feature such as word order is represented throughout the world. To find the answer, the researcher will consult WALS's Map 81 entitled "Order of Subject, Object, and Verb", which shows the distribution of the SOV, SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV languages, as well as the distribution of the languages that lack a dominant word order. Traditionally, linguists have worked with two kinds of atlases: those that reflect the geographical distribution of languages and those that show the geographical distribution of linguistic features in the dialects of a language. Thus, by producing a feature atlas on a worldwide scale the creators of WALS achieved a welcome innovation which, as the editors state, "can be thought of as a kind of dialect atlas of the 'dialects' of Human Language" (1).

WALS is truly astonishing in its scope. The numbers speak for themselves. There is a total of 2,559 languages which appear as more then 58,000 data points on at least one of the 142 full-color world maps and numerous regional maps. The data comes from more than 6,700 books and articles and from the information provided by 89 expert consultants. 55 authors from Europe, USA, Australia, India, and New Zealand contributed to the work. The main portion of the atlas focuses on 128 linguistic features that are grouped thematically into 8 sections: phonology, morphology, nominal categories, nominal syntax, verbal categories, word order, simple clauses, and complex sentences. Within each of these sections, the features included provide a broad coverage of the most important subdomains within each of these structural domains. For instance, the section on verbal categories contains sixteen chapters, out of which four deal with tense and aspect, nine with modality and two with suppletion. Besides the main eight sections listed above, there are three additional sections dedicated to the lexicon, sign language, paralinguistic sounds and writing systems.

When talking about a linguistic atlas, we naturally first of all think of maps. Therefore it is important to mention that while the maps in WALS provide a visual overview of the distribution of the linguistic features, they are not the only source of information. Each one of these maps is preceded by an article which explains the feature in question, comments on its geographical distribution and outlines its theoretical significance.

Another important component of WALS is the interactive CD-ROM. This user-friendly tool, accompanied by a manual, provides access to primary and bibliographical data, as well as to other sources that underlie the atlas's database. In addition, the CD-ROM allows the reader to carry out a wide range of tasks. For example, one can customize maps, zoom in on particular geographic areas, export and print maps, and save various selections for future use. The CD-ROM also allows users to combine and modify standard features. For instance, Map 1, which focuses on the consonant inventories ranging from small (6 consonants) to large (122 consonants), provides five values for the size of the set of consonants used in the language: small, moderately small, average, moderately large, and large. In just two clicks the user can reduce these five values to three: below average, average, and above average. With the help of the search function one can search for language names, genus names, family names, etc. The CD-ROM also allows the manipulation of data, e.g., to calculate what percentage of the world's languages have a particular feature value. Furthermore, users can create their own compound features. For example, one can find out whether the existence of tone in a language is correlated with the type of syllable structure. The program can automatically produce nine combinations that merge the three values for tone (none, simple, complex) with the three values for syllable structure (simple, moderately complex, complex), create a value for each one of these nine compound features, show the number of languages for each value, suggest a symbol for each value, and display the values' overview in a form of a map.

Cognitive linguists can avail themselves of the enormous wealth of typological data presented in WALS in a variety of ways. For example, researchers working on morphosyntactic categories within a cognitive-typological approach, such as Kemmer (1998), will appreciate the access that the atlas provides to the cross-linguistically recurring patterns of grammatical expression. Linguists dedicated to cognitive phonology along the lines of Nathan (1996) will benefit from WALS's chapters on sound inventories, syllable structure, tone, stress, and rhythm. The Lexicon section, and particularly its chapters on terms for body parts and color, are a valuable resource for linguists who subscribe to the framework of cognitive semantics outlined in Dworkin (2006). The opportunities are virtually endless. After all, as demonstrated in Croft (1999), the cognitive and the typological theoretical paradigms are harmonious with one another and have the potential to be mutually enriching. In sum, WALS is an absolute must for anyone interested in exploring the interface between cognitive linguistics and typology at any level of linguistic analysis.

References

Croft, William. 1999. Some contributions of typology to cognitive linguistics, and vice versa. In Janssen, Theo and Gisela Redeker (eds.), Cognitive Linguistics: Foundations, Scope, and Methodology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 61-93.

Dworkin, Steven N. 2006. Recent developments in Spanish (and Romance) historical semantics. In Face, Timothy L. and Carol A. Klee (eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 50-57.

Kemmer, Suzanne. 1998. Human cognition and the elaboration of events: some universal conceptual categories. In Tomasello, Michael (ed.), The New Psychology of Language. Volume 2. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, 89-118.

Nathan, Geoffrey S. 1996. Steps towards a cognitive phonology. In Hurch, Bernhard and Richard Rhodes (eds.), Natural Phonology: The State of the Art. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 107-120.

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