Two ways in which linguistic typology is not butterfly collection
Hedvig Skirgård
Linguistic typology is not like butterfly collecting in two ways: 1) we want to explain as well as describe and 2) languages matter to (most) people in a way that butterflies don’t.
Linguistic typology is about systematic cross-linguistic comparison and seeks to explain patterns of linguistic diversity. These explanations appeal to cognitive, areal, cultural, communicative historical and/or evolutionary constraints. The identification of meaningful similarities and differences between languages is a task that draws primarily on knowledge from traditional linguistics. However, as we aim for explanations of the patterns we necessarily have to engage with other disciplines such as ecology, history, evolutionary biology, cultural evolution, cognitive sciences and more. Even when overall mechanisms are not identical (cultural evolution ≠ biological evolution), specific tools can still be borrowed and adapted.
Most languages of the world are endangered. This is primarily harmful to language communities themselves. As we are in the UNESCO decade of Indigenous languages, linguistic typology could play a part in highlighting the breadth of language diversity and its relevance to understanding us as humans. We should consider if and how we can design our research project in light of this. I give one example of analysis in a recent paper where we attempted to estimate the loss of language disparity.