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1、Inferringuniversalsfromgrammaticalvariation:multidimensionalscalingfortypologicalanalysisWilliamCroftUniversityofManchester/CenterforAdvancedStudyintheBehavioralSciencesKeithT.PooleUniversityofHouston/CenterforAdvancedStudyintheBehavioralSciencesABSTRACTAfundamentalfactaboutgra
2、mmaticalstructureisthatitishighlyvariablebothacrosslanguagesandwithinlanguages.Typologicalanalysishasdrawnlanguageuniversalsfromgrammaticalvariationthroughimplicationaluniversals,implicationalhierarchies,andmorerecently,semanticmaps.Withlarger-scalecrosslinguisticstudiesandhigh
3、levelsofgrammaticalvariation,thesemethodsareinadequate,andthemostsophisticatedofthese,semanticmaps,whiletheoreticallywell-motivatedintypology,isnotmathematicallywell-defined.Wearguethatmultidimensionalscaling(MDS),inparticulartheOptimalClassificationnonparametricunfoldingalgori
4、thm,offersapowerful,formalizedtoolthatallowslinguiststoinferlanguageuniversalsfromhighlycomplexandlarge-scaledatasets.Wecompareourapproachtopreviouswork,includingHaspelmathÕssemanticmapanalysisofindefinitepronouns,Levinsonetal.ÕsdissimilarityMDSanalysisofspatialadpositions,andD
5、ahlÕs(1985)analysisoftenseandaspect.WeofferanewanalysisoftherelationshipbetweenlexicalandgrammaticalaspectusingMDSandaphasalmodelofeventstructure.MDSworksbestwithlarge-scaledatasets,implyingthecentralityofgrammaticalvariationininferringlanguageuniversalsandtheimportanceofexamin
6、ingaswidearangeofgrammaticalbehavioraspossiblebothwithinandacrosslanguages.1.IntroductionAfundamentalfactaboutgrammaticalstructureisthatitishighlyvariablebothacrosslanguagesandwithinlanguages.Thevariationwearereferringtoisnotsociolinguisticvariation,butvariationintheconventions
7、ofalanguage,thatis,theconventionalgrammaticalstructuresusedbyacommunityofspeakerstodescribeaparticularsituation.Conventionalvariationismostobviouslymanifestedincrosslinguisticvariation:differentlanguagesconventionallyemploydifferentgrammaticalstructurestodescribethesamesituatio
8、n.Thereisahighdegreeofvariationingrammaticaldistributi
