ID: 20220602015309126-597

Researcher: Balthasar Bickel, Johanna Nichols, Taras Zakharko, Alena Witzlack-Makarevich, Kristine Hildebrandt, Michael Rießler, Lennart Bierkandt, Fernando Zúñiga, John B. Lowe

WP: Other

PI: Balthasar Bickel

Abstract: AUTOTYP is a large-scale research program with goals in both quantitative and qualitative typology. In quantitative typology, we are interested in detecting and explaining geographical distributions of typological features and in producing statistical estimates of universal preferences as well as of genealogical inheritance and areal diffusion potentials. In qualitative typology, we aim at a systematic analysis of the kinds of variation found in various typological domains. AUTOTYP was developed in response to two problems faced by traditional typological databases:Traditional databases typically rely on a static and pre-defined category list which tends to conflict with the data as more languages are entered and which restricts the database to research in theories that completely sanction the category list. (For discussion of some of the problems arising, download our paper on the use of AUTOTYP in field linguistics. )Traditional databases are typically integrated into a single file containing a wide variety of information making it difficult if not impossible to re-use any part of this information, e.g., genetic affiliation, in other databases or to search for typological correlations across databases.The AUTOTYP program addresses these shortcomings and proposes general design principles for the development of typological databases.

Publication DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6255206

Publication Link: https://www.autotyp.uzh.ch/download/canary.pdf

Data Type: text database

Data Format: RData, JSON, csv, yaml, CLDF

Data Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6255206

Git: https://github.com/autotyp/autotyp-data