Martin Haspelmath is a linguist whose comparative research concerns diversity and recurring patterns in grammatical and lexical systems. He coedited the World Atlas of Language Structures, an important resource for linguistic typology, and studies how properties can be compared across languages.[ref]
Research profile by Martin Haspelmath. About me, comparative research and World Atlas of Language Structures coeditorship
The scientific challenge goes beyond collecting familiar grammatical labels. In an original toy comparison, suppose two descriptions use different names for constructions that both express a possessor. A cross-language count needs an explicit criterion for deciding whether their relevant properties match. Conversely, identical labels do not guarantee equivalent structures. A useful lexical database or grammatical comparison separates documented observations from the analyst's coding decisions.
Martin Haspelmath developed the Leipzig Glossing Rules by Bernard Comrie and others with Bernard Comrie and Balthasar Bickel. A standardized display of morphemes and their glosses helps readers inspect the evidence behind a comparative claim; it does not by itself establish that claim.[ref]
Leipzig Glossing Rules by Bernard Comrie and others. About the rules and basic principles of interlinear glossing
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