>ČASOPIS PRO MODERNÍ FILOLOGII 2025 (107) 1
Limitations of Large Typological Databases
ABSTRACT (en)
This paper focuses on the Grambank database, a large and relatively new typological database. Like others, Grambank has many advantages (e.g. easy access to a large amount of data), but also weaknesses. Particular attention will be paid to errors related to the data itself and its processing. These errors can be broadly divided into two groups: factual errors, mostly caused by incorrect interpretation of the source, and problems of an interpretative nature, where different data processors interpreted the source material in different ways. Using our own research, we will demonstrate, referring to the cases of Northeast Asian languages (mainly Japanese-Ryukyu, Tungusic, Korean, Mongolian, and Chinese), how problematic the extent of distorted data can be, especially in the case of less well-described varieties (various Ryukyu varieties and smaller Tungusic languages). This paper shows that there are entire language families about which the database provides an inaccurate picture. The above-mentioned problems are illustrated using specific examples of linguistic phe nomena for which Grambank contains problematic data, namely the position of numerals in relation to the noun, the presence of ideophones, and evidentiality.
KEYWORDS (cz)
typologie, Grambank, morfosyntax, severovýchodní Asie, chybná data
KEYWORDS (en)
linguistic typology, Grambank, morphosyntax, Northeast Asia, faulty data
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14712/23366591.2025.1.5
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