Transitivity Revisited as an Example of a More Strict Approach in Typological Research

If linguistics is to become a real science, it has to solve the problem of apprehending objective invariant relationships, ie, empirical universals. This is the aim of current typology. However, the results often seem to be vague or shaky, because the approach lacks firm theoretical foundations & involves too many ill-defined, purely intuitive notions. It is possible to do more solidly grounded typological work. Comparison of languages requires, at the outset, the construction of arbitrary conceptual frameworks, founded on intuition, as an independent standard of comparison. On the other hand, subsequent work should take into account only observable morphosyntactic facts & their semantic correlates & exclude intuition entirely. This approach avoids mixing speculation with objective observation: it thus lends itself to positive criticism & should consequently be conducive to scientific progress. It is here exemplified by the study of transitivity in a cross-linguistic perspective. Transitivity is conceived of as a scalar property of predication, as in the theory of Hopper & Thompson; however, the approach is different & is claimed to have a more solid theoretical foundation. 65 References. Adapted from the source document