Joseph Greenberg er mest kjent for sitt arbeid innen synkronsk lingvistikk og sin jakt på språkuniversaler. Han foreslo også flere såkalte makrofamilier, og prøvde å bevise at mange språk som vanligvis regnes for å tilhøre forskjellige språkfamilier, er i slekt med hverandre.
Utvalgte verker
1949. «Studies in African linguistic classification: I. Introduction, Niger-Congo family.» Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 5, 79-100.
1954. «Studies in African linguistic classification VIII. Further remarks on method; revisions and corrections.» Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 10, 405-15.
1955. Studies in African Linguistic Classification. New Haven: Compass Publishing Company.
1957. Essays in Linguistics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1963 (red.). Universals of Language. Cambridge: MIT Press.
1963. The Languages of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
1970. «Some generalizations concerning glottalic consonants, especially implosives.» International Journal of American Linguistics 36, 123-145.
1971. «The Indo-Pacific hypothesis.» I Thomas A. Sebeok et al. (redaktører), Current Trends in Linguistics, Volume 8: Linguistics in Oceania, 807-871. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.
1978 (red.). Universals of Human Language, Volume 1: Method and Theory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1978 (red.). Universals of Human Language, Volume 2: Phonology. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1978 (red.). Universals of Human Language, Volume 3: Word Structure. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1978 (red.). Universals of Human Language, Volume 4: Syntax. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
1983. «Some areal characteristics of African languages.» I Current Approaches to African Linguistics, Volume 1, redigert av Ivan R. Dihoff, 3-21. Dordrecht: Foris.
1987. Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
2000. Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family, Volume 1: Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
2002. Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family, Volume 2: Lexicon. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
2005. Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and Method, redigert av William Croft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Referanser
^abEncyclopædia Britannica Online, oppført som Joseph H. Greenberg, Encyclopædia Britannica Online-ID biography/Joseph-H-Greenberg, besøkt 9. oktober 2017[Hentet fra Wikidata]