Abstract This special issue examines the use of dependency-annotated corpora across different languages for quantitative typological research. The contributions explore how large-scale resources enable new analyses of morphological and syntactic complexity, word order variation, language contact, and language evolution, as well as challenges in the annotation of specific phenomena. Together, these contributions demonstrate the potential of dependency grammar-based resources for advancing crosslinguistic research.
Abstract This chapter deals with problems that arise when attempting to apply a Universal Dependencies (UD) annotation to languages which have more than one basic transitive construction, that is, where the subject is not by default an agent, and the object is not by default a patient. While non-agentive subjects are well known from passive constructions, agentive objects are hardly known and are not widely attested. They occur in symmetrical voice languages in western Austronesia, as illustrated in this paper with data from Tagalog. Other issues are raised by existential and possessive constructions, which also pose some challenges in symmetrical voice languages. Our main finding is that UD, in principle, is flexible enough to accommodate all the special constructions found in symmetrical voice languages. However there are alternative solutions for the two problems we have singled out here, and it is not easy to determine which of these is the “best”.
Abstract One of the most well-established typological universals is that languages tend to order the grammatical head and its dependents consistently. This harmonic principle has been attributed to cognitive benefits that facilitate language processing and learning efficiency. However, there is little corpus-based research disentangling the evolutionary processes that shape the crosslinguistic distribution of harmony. Using 58 dependency-annotated corpora and Bayesian multilevel phylogenetic inference, this study investigates the evolutionary biases towards harmony against principled baselines in the history of Indo-European. While the observed evolutionary trends favor harmony over disharmony, they are largely consistent with those expected under a random baseline that generates orders independently for each dependency type. At the same time, the observed trends show a much weaker harmonic bias than expected under a baseline that assumes a single head-dependent parameter governing word order patterns. Overall, these findings provide limited support for functional explanations of syntactic harmony in language use, while suggesting that distinct processes may play a role in shaping structural diversity and language evolution.
Abstract This special issue examines linguistic justice as a critical but under-recognized dimension of sustainable development and equitable partnerships. Drawing on interdisciplinary research across diverse geographical and institutional contexts, the contributions demonstrate how linguistic marginalization shapes access to information, healthcare, disaster preparedness, civic participation, and other fundamental rights. It features authors who work in cross- and interdisciplinary ways, particularly in under-researched contexts and marginalized communities. Four themes emerge: linguistic justice as a human rights issue, persistent linguistic hierarchies, the ambivalent role of communication technologies, and translation practices and experiences of empowerment. Collectively, the articles highlight that language is an under-appreciated dimension of structural inequality, which requires deliberate intervention from decision-makers to mitigate risks to survival, health, and disaster preparedness. There is an urgent need to critically assess how multilingualism is incorporated and implemented in the governance of health and disaster-response.
Abstract This squib adopts a sociocultural perspective on linguistic creativity, challenging the traditional view of creative expressions as a purely internal cognitive process. Instead, it frames creativity as a collaborative achievement situated within the dynamic interaction between speakers and hearers, shaped by a complex interplay of pragmatic and social factors. To illustrate this, the study analyses the constructional idiom [X short of Y], a template traditionally used to signal mental inadequacy or eccentricity (e.g., a few sandwiches short of a picnic or a few bricks short of a full deck ). By examining diverse examples extracted from the enTenTen21 corpus (Sketch Engine), the squib shows that speakers do not merely replicate fixed idioms but strategically innovate within the constructional frame to generate context-sensitive meaning. Two main drivers of this creativity are explored: first, the reliance on shared cultural encyclopedic knowledge to ensure successful metaphorical mapping against the mechanism of coercion; and second, the associative networks in the explanation of metonymical or metaphorical mappings, resulting in the reward of the hearer’s inferential effort. Ultimately, this squib argues that linguistic creativity is a fundamentally interactive phenomenon, where the playful modification of existing constructional idioms serves both communicative effectiveness or appropriateness and social alignment.
