MED-TYP: A Typological Database for Mediterranean Languages

Electronic databases are increasingly popular tools in typological research. Despite the advantages of such tools, there are problems connected both with their construction and with their standardization. For instance, there is generally a considerable gap between the information stored in typological databases and primary data: primary morphosyntactic data are much more difficult to handle compu-tationally than typological generalizations. Moreover, the need for standardization has led typologists to develop highly refined gloss-ing practices and guidelines for collecting data, but there are still too few initiatives to increase standardization in typological data-bases. The aim of this paper is to suggest a radically new approach to the storage of data for typological analysis. The Med-Typ Data-base, which is currently being developed at the University of Pavia, has been providing us with concrete experience of the problems that need to be addressed when creating typological databases. This database uses XML annotation and aims to be both a collection of data for future analyses of areal distribution of features within the Mediterranean area and a tool for systematic analysis of the range of variation found in various typological domains. Introduction: the MED-TYP project The aim of this paper is twofold, and can be summarized as follows: a) firstly, we aim to describe the on-going experience o