Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology

Along with Paynes "Describing Morphosyntax" (ISBN: 0521588057), this book will help any student -- or entertain any enthusiast --of languages or linguistics. It treats various types of syntactic theory in a manner that (rarely among such useful works) is clear, engaging and (in places) enthralling. While drawing on the familiar "old standards" for grammatic comparison (Russian, Dyirbal, Yakut, Hikxaryana, Japanese, etc), the way comparisons are drawn between systems reveals isomorphisms and patterns that are certainly elegant and perhaps beautiful. Comrie has, as ever, produced a thing of wonder.