Review Articles Language typology and syntactic description MARIA KOPTJEVSKAJA-TAMM and HENRIK LILJEGREN Linguistic Typology 17 (2013), 107–156 1430–0532/2013/017-0107 DOI 10.1515/lingty-2013-0004 ©Walter de Gruyter Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description. Second edition. 3 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Vol. I: xx + 477 pages, ISBN 978-0-521-58156-1 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-521-58857-7 (paperback), ISBN 978-0- 511-61942-7 (online, January 2010); Vol. II: xxii + 465 pages, ISBN 978-0-521-58157- 8 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-521-58856-0 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-511-61943-4 (on- line, December 2009); Vol. III: xxii + 426 pages, ISBN 978-0-521-58158-5 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-521-58855-3 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-511-61843-7 (online, December 2009); GBP 186 (hardback, 3-volume set), 28.99 (paperback, each volume). 1. Introduction In the first edition of Language typology and syntactic description, appearing in 1985, the editor, Timothy Shopen, had stated his and his contributors’ purpose in the introduction to each of the three volumes: Our purpose has been to do a cross-linguistic survey of syntactic and morphologi- cal structure that can serve as a manual for field workers, and for anyone interested in relating observations about particular languages to a general theory of language. When Language typology and syntactic description saw a second edition, 22 years later, it was not quite as explicit, but the following passage from the acknowledgments, as well as providing historical context, gave an idea of what was to be expected: I [Timothy Shopen] came up with the idea used to organize the first edition at a conference on field work questionnaires held at the Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC. I said the best way to prepare for field work is to gain a good idea of what to look for. People thought this was right so I was asked to do the organizing. There have been surveys in the past but I believe none with this scope. Brought to you by | University of Chicago Authenticated | 128.135.12.127 Download Date | 9/17/13 7:41 PM