In recent years, the focus of dialectological research has shifted towards morphology and syntax. The Internet has revolutionized the availability of tools such as audio data, database searches, electronic maps, etc. Published in 2012, the second part of the monumental Linguistic Atlas of Dolomitic Ladinian and Neighbouring Dialects (ALD-II) focuses on morphological and syntactic phenomena. These developments suggest that the time has come to reconsider the relationship between linguistic theory and dialectology: Data collected in recent atlas projects offer new insights into grammatical structures and the limits of grammar-internal variation - providing an opportunity to test linguistic hypotheses against the variation encountered. The ALD-II, with its rich and reliable data gathered painstakingly in a significant part of northern Italy, allows dialectologists and theoreticians alike to test their assumptions on field data now available in electronic and print format complementing one another.