[…] it is submitted that a structural dialectology is possibile. Its results promise to be most fruitful if it is combined with "external" dialectology without its own conceptual framework being abandoned.
- Weinreich (1954), a pag.400

A specifically structural dialectology would look for the structural consequences of partial differences within a framework of partial similarity. It is safe to say that a good deal of dialectology is actually of this type and contains no necessary references to geography, ethnography, political and cultural history, or other extra-structural factors. [...] Non-geographic, structural dialectology does exist; it is legitimate and even promising. Its special concern is the study of partial similarities and differences between systems and of the structural consequences thereof. The preceding is not to say, of course, that "external" dialectology has been surpassed [...].
- Weinreich (1954), a pag.390

The use of the social-science tools of "external dialectology" can do much to supplement the procedures outlined for a structural dialectology.
- Weinreich (1954), a pag.398