Description: In this radically new approach to morphological typology, the authors set out new and explicit methods for the typological classification of languages. Drawing on evidence from a diverse range of languages including Chinantec, Dakota, French, Fur, Icelandic, Ngiti and Sanskrit, the authors propose innovative ways of measuring inflectional complexity. Designed to engage graduate students and academic researchers, the book presents opportunities for further investigation. The authors' data sets and the computational tool that they constructed for their analysis are available online, allowing readers to employ them in their own research. Readers can access the online computational tool through www.cambridge.org/stump_finkel.
Brief description: Gregory Stump is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Kentucky.
Review Quotes: Advance praise: "Periodically a book is published which offers such an original perspective that it seems we have never really understood what we thought we knew: this is likely that kind of book for many readers. The cross--‐linguistic study of complex morphological systems is establishing the crucial status of words and paradigms in providing insights about natural language organization. With characteristically careful rigor and clarity Stump and Finkal introduce a new way of analyzing and typologizing inflectional systems. While developing their model would have been enough, the book takes on an even greater dimension as they explicitly explore ways of synthesizing their perspective with recent competing models. Stump and Finkal cause us to pause and consider a new role for morphology in modern linguistic theory. And I suspect that the field will improve, when we do." Farrell Ackerman, Professor of Linguistics, UC San Diego Director, Human Development Program, UC San Diego