text_combined: 5 1254 typological classification worth disagree martin haspelmath agree fritz newmeyer problem defining concepts typological work operates need make sure become political thing nt see difference point work typologists functionalists compared formalists everybody tries compare two languages problems ex reference basic word order question noticed long time ago languages claimed ovs basic actually rarely time sentence argued maybe term basic applied way applies english svo patterns many many examples compare incomparables compare comparables concepts vague terminologies ambiguous example published papers documenting confusions surrounding term topic typological literature seems lot confusion likewise concepts ergative passive seems typological categories configurational non prodrop non poorly defined liable lead kinds confusion