Síntesis y análisis en las lenguas: crítica de la tipología morfológica clásica y de algunas de sus aplicaciones sincrónicas y diacrónicas

Abstract

The classical morphological classification of languages into three types (isolating, agglutinating and inflectional) was interpreted in the nineteenth century as indicative of three stages of language evolution. It was assumed that the inflectional type was the more evolved stage in language development. Although this classification is still in use in the current linguistic literature, no linguist appears to maintain explicitly that interpretation. Nonetheless, there are some recent proposals in which some version of that interpretation is assumed. In this paper two of these proposals are critically analized. The first consists in McWhorter's (2001) statement that the grammar of creoles are the simplest grammars. The second is Alinei's (1996) contention that the three language types correlate with the prehistoric development of tool-making. It is shown that the points made by both McWhorter and Alinei are ethnocentrically biased and lack a sound linguistic basis.