Re: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ↑
metanymous в посте Openmeta (оригинал в ЖЖ)
Diversity of Human Language
We are interested in finding out what properties are common to all human languages ("language universals") and the ways in which languages can differ from each other ("linguistic typology"). Beyond this, we aim to answer the question why language universals and cross-linguistic variation are the way they are. To this end, we study various phenomena across a wide range of languages. Our work makes reference to formal properties of language, to the cognitive bases of language, and to aspects of language in use.
As part of our work on the cross-linguistic study of various phenomena, we also work on the descriptive grammars of various little studied, and often endangered, languages. This work includes extensive periods of time spent with speakers of these languages in the areas where
http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/