Method Of Historical Linguistics Research Articles

What are cognates?

The popularity of computational methods in historical linguistics has primarily been motivated by mere access to the new methods themselves, rather than by looking for tools to solve problems. Investigators have looked for problems with which to showcase their tools. This dynamic is one reason why eye‐catching but long solved problems, such as the homeland of the Indo‐Europeans (Gray & Atkinson 2003) have received more attention than genuinely unsolved or controversial questions, such as how to incorporate the Hittite ḫi‐conjugation into an understanding of the Indo‐European verbal system (Jasanoff 2003). One assumption of Bayesian methods is that cognacy can be conceptualized as binary. Although this is how historical linguists themselves often speak, it is not how they work. The goal of this essay is to more precisely delimit what is meant when we call two words cognate, to emphasize that this is not a binary relation, but to suggest that this relationship can still be modeled formally.

Word prediction in computational historical linguistics

In this paper, we investigate how the prediction paradigm from machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be put to use in computational historical linguistics. We propose word prediction as an intermediate task, where the forms of unseen words in some target language are predicted from the forms of the corresponding words in a source language. Word prediction allows us to develop algorithms for phylogenetic tree reconstruction, sound correspondence identification and cognate detection, in ways close to attested methods for linguistic reconstruction. We will discuss different factors, such as data representation and the choice of machine learning model, that have to be taken into account when applying prediction methods in historical linguistics. We present our own implementations and evaluate them on different tasks in historical linguistics.

The Acquisition of Directionals in Two Mayan Languages.

We use the comparative method of language acquisition research in this article to investigate children’s expression of directional clitics in two Eastern Mayan languages – K’iche’ and Mam (Pye and Pfeiler, 2014; Pye, 2017). The comparative method in historical linguistics reconstructs the grammatical antecedents of modern languages and traces the evolution of each linguistic feature (Paul, 1889; Campbell, 1998). This history informs research on language acquisition by demonstrating how phonological and morphological features interact in the evolution of new uses for common inherited traits. Children acquiring modern languages must learn the arbitrary constraints imposed on their language by its history.

Han F. Vermeulen. Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment. (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology.) xxiii + 718 pp., illus., bibl., index. Lincoln/London: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. $75 (cloth).

Han F. Vermeulen. <i>Before Boas: The Genesis of Ethnography and Ethnology in the German Enlightenment</i>. (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology.) xxiii + 718 pp., illus., bibl., index. Lincoln/London: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. $75 (cloth).

Cladistic Parsimony, Historical Linguistics and Cultural Phylogenetics

AbstractHere, I consider the recent application of phylogenetic methods in historical linguistics. After a preliminary survey of one such method, i.e. cladistic parsimony, I respond to two common criticisms of cultural phylogenies: (1) that cultural artifacts cannot be modeled as tree‐like because of borrowing across lineages, and (2) that the mechanism of cultural change differs radically from that of biological evolution. I argue that while perhaps (1) remains true for certain cultural artifacts, the nature of language may be such as to side‐step this objection. Moreover, I explore the possibility that cladistic parsimony can be justified even if (2) is true by appealing to the inference pattern known among philosophers as ‘Inference to the Best Explanation’ (IBE).

The Potential of Automatic Word Comparison for Historical Linguistics.

The amount of data from languages spoken all over the world is rapidly increasing. Traditional manual methods in historical linguistics need to face the challenges brought by this influx of data. Automatic approaches to word comparison could provide invaluable help to pre-analyze data which can be later enhanced by experts. In this way, computational approaches can take care of the repetitive and schematic tasks leaving experts to concentrate on answering interesting questions. Here we test the potential of automatic methods to detect etymologically related words (cognates) in cross-linguistic data. Using a newly compiled database of expert cognate judgments across five different language families, we compare how well different automatic approaches distinguish related from unrelated words. Our results show that automatic methods can identify cognates with a very high degree of accuracy, reaching 89% for the best-performing method Infomap. We identify the specific strengths and weaknesses of these different methods and point to major challenges for future approaches. Current automatic approaches for cognate detection—although not perfect—could become an important component of future research in historical linguistics.

Evaluating proposals of language genealogical relationship

In an endeavor to objectify and provide uniformity to the comparative method of historical linguistics, this study describes the Beck-Wichmann-Brown (BWB) system for evaluating lexical sets assembled as evidence for proposals of language genealogical relationship. The approach quantitatively assesses the degree of support that collections of comparative sets provide for proposals, with regard to whether or not observed lexical similarity exceeds coincidental expectation. BWB is illustrated through application to an assemblage of 51 comparative sets compiled by Pache (2016) for the affiliation of Pumé and Chocoan languages of South America. This study presents and ranks BWB quantitative results for 65 language comparisons (of global distribution) and proposes a framework for interpreting ranked findings. Evaluations for the 65 comparisons are compared with those provided by three online classifications of the world’s languages.

Variación en la secuencia /kt/ en español centropeninsular: Estudio sincrónico y aplicaciones diacrónicas

Diachronic phonetics and phonology in Spanish have not kept up to date with the latest methods in historical linguistics. Though acknowledging the value of traditional bibliography, this paper advocates an interdisciplinary, more modern approach. By way of example, an analysis is proposed of the evolution of /kt/ from Latin to Spanish. An experimental study of the sequence /kt/ in speakers from the Madrid area serves to argue that empirical synchronic data are an invaluable contribution that improve traditional views into diachrony. This paper seeks to invite reflection on possible ways of methodological renovation in the field of historical phonetics.

Grammatischer Wandel im (Mittel-)Neuhochdeutschen – von oben und von unten. Perspektiven einer Historischen Soziolinguistik des Deutschen

Abstract The present contribution addresses the phenomenon of grammatical change using a historical sociolinguistic approach, which is based on the principle that systematic language change can only be described and explained by accounting for sociopragmatic and variational factors of language use. The approach is illustrated by an empirical investigation of the change of selected morphological and syntactic features in (Middle) New High German, using Labov’s distinction between ‘language change from above’ and ‘language change from below’ as a starting point of analysis. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that the historical sociolinguistic approach not only complements other methods of historical linguistics, but may also lead to results and findings that could perhaps not be achieved by other methodological approaches. Moreover, it is considered central to the description and explanation of the development of language varieties in periods of language standardisation.

Anthropological papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian connection (review)

Reviewed by: Anthropological papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian connection Michael Dunn Anthropological papers of the University of Alaska: The Dene-Yeniseian connection. Ed. by James Kari and Ben A. Potter. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2010. Pp. vi, 363. ISBN 9781555001124. $40. This collection of papers presents and discusses a landmark achievement in linguistics: Edward Vajda's first demonstration of a plausible genealogical link between languages of Eurasia and languages of the Americas (apart from the more recent circumpolar movements of Eskimo languages). Dramatic discoveries are rare in historical linguistics: as befits an old and often library-bound discipline, the pace of change in historical linguistics is slow, and most contributions are of the incremental type. In contrast, the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis is a big step, and whatever the eventual consensus of its truth turns out to be, the proposal of Dene-Yeniseian is an important event in the development of historical linguistics and deserves all our attention. The collection is based on papers presented at the Dene-Yeniseian Symposium held at the University of Alaska in February 2008. It starts with two useful and informative introductions: the editors' introduction giving the historical background to the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis, followed by an introduction from the linguistic perspective by BERNARD COMRIE, which explains to a non-specialist readership the basic principles of the comparative method in historical linguistics and sketches the typological characteristics of the two component families, Yeniseian and Na-Dene. EDWARD J. VAJDA presents the case for the Dene-Yeniseian link in a sixty-six-page paper, which he follows with another paper in which he discusses Dene-Yeniseian in the context of other long-range comparative hypotheses, with generous acknowledgment of all possible intellectual precursors to the idea. Vajda makes clear his sympathy for the 'long ranger' tendencies in historical linguistics, but sticks to a mainstream approach in his analysis.1 Part 2 of the collection contains interdisciplinary perspectives from human genetics (G. RICHARD SCOTT and DENNIS O'ROURKE), archaeology (BEN A. POTTER), areal phonology and Na-Dene historical linguistics (JEFF LEER), 'geolinguistics' (JAMES KARI), comparative kinship (JOHN W. IVES, SALLY RICE, and Edward J. Vajda), and folklore (YURI E. BEREZKIN, ALEXANDRA KIM-MALONEY). Part 3 of the collection is devoted to commentaries: a series of reviews of the evidence for the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis by major figures in linguistics. While all of the authors of this section agree that the evidence for [End Page 429] the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis is high quality and that the hypothesis should be taken seriously, there is not unanimous agreement that it has been decisively proven. The core linguistic case for Dene-Yeniseian follows the gold standard of historical linguistics, and includes evidence for the common origin of certain morphological systems, as well as evidence for regular sound change. The evidence for shared morphological systems comes from several domains. There is evidence that both Yeniseian and Na-Dene tense-aspect-mood markers have evolved from an original bipartite verb system, with auxiliary and content verbs both hosting their own affixes. The pronominal systems are more problematic: Vajda states (53) that the lack of apparent cognacy relations between any first- and second-person pronouns is one of the reasons that few linguists have bothered to look further into Dene-Yeniseian connections. A number of possible cognates are investigated, along with a possible homology between the relative location of speech-act-participant and third-person agreement prefixes. Three 'shape prefixes' appear to have cognates in the two families, as do a set of elements that gave rise to Na-Dene classifiers. Finally, Vajda shows homologies between rather complex action nominal derivations (generally called 'infinitives' in descriptions of Yeniseian, and 'gerunds' in Na-Dene), which have been independently reconstructed in the two families. In his discussion of the phonological systems, Vajda describes how a number of coda-reduction processes acting in parallel in Yeniseian and Na-Dene can explain idiosyncrasies in one family by the phonological outcomes in the other. Likewise, tones (observed in Yeniseian Ket and sporadically...

Language evolution and human history: what a difference a date makes

Historical inference is at its most powerful when independent lines of evidence can be integrated into a coherent account. Dating linguistic and cultural lineages can potentially play a vital role in the integration of evidence from linguistics, anthropology, archaeology and genetics. Unfortunately, although the comparative method in historical linguistics can provide a relative chronology, it cannot provide absolute date estimates and an alternative approach, called glottochronology, is fundamentally flawed. In this paper we outline how computational phylogenetic methods can reliably estimate language divergence dates and thus help resolve long-standing debates about human prehistory ranging from the origin of the Indo-European language family to the peopling of the Pacific.

Phylogenetic Methods in Historical Linguistics: Greek as a Case Study

AbstractWe review and assess the different ways in which research in evolutionary-theory-inspired biology has influenced research in historical linguistics, and then focus on an evolutionary-theory inspired claim for language change made by Pagel et al. (2007). They report that the more Swadesh-list lexemes are used, the less likely they are to change across 87 Indo-European languages, and posit that frequency-of-use of a lexical item is a separate and general mechanism of language change. We test a corollary of this conclusion, namely that current frequency-of-use should predict the amount of change within individual languages through time. We devise a scale of lexical change that recognizes sound change, analogical change and lexical replacement and apply it to cognate pairs on the Swadesh list between Homeric and Modern Greek. Current frequency-of-use only weakly predicts the amount of change within the history of Greek, but amount of change does predict the number of forms across Indo-European. Given that current frequency-of-use and past frequency-of-use may be only weakly correlated for many Swadesh-list lexemes, and given previous research that shows that frequency-of-use can both hinder and facilitate lexical change, we conclude that it is premature to claim that a new mechanism of language change has been discovered. However, we call for more in-depth comparative study of general mechanisms of language change, including further tests of the frequency-of-use hypothesis.

Language classification: History and method (review)

Reviewed by: Language classification: History and method Claire Bowern Language classification: History and method. By Lyle Campbell and William Poser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pp. ix, 546. ISBN 9780521880053. $125 (Hb). Historical linguistics and language classification questions have recently been prominent in the field (as well as in the wider media) because of work demonstrating connections between Athabaskan and Yenisei languages (Vajda 2000, 2001) and the use of computational biological methods to study change, subgrouping, and population spread (Gray et al. 2007). Campbell and Poser have written a complex book that covers many aspects of language classification. They make contributions to the history of the field, to the development of ideas about particular language relationships, and to long-standing arguments about the validity of methods of long-range comparison. The authors’ aims are to demonstrate how methods have been used in historical linguistics, to explain which methods have worked and which have not, to determine how particular language families have been established (that is, under what criteria and how reliably), to evaluate some controversial proposals of distant genetic relationship, and finally to make recommendations about future research. The first chapter (1–12) introduces the history of the evolution in Western thought regarding language classification and genetic relationship. Ch. 2, ‘The beginning of comparative linguistics’ (13–31), describes early contributions, while Ch. 3, ‘ “Asiatic Jones, Oriental Jones”: Sir William Jones’ role in the raise of comparative linguistics’ (32–47), concerns the role Sir William Jones and his famous ‘philologer’ passage have played and the accuracy of interpretation of the passage. The authors then move to method: how to show that languages are related, and applications of the comparative method to Indo-European (Ch. 5, ‘How some languages were shown to belong to Indo-European’, 74–86) and to other languages and regions (Ch. 6, ‘Comparative linguistics of other language families and regions’, 87–161). Ch. 7, ‘How to show languages are related: The methods’ (162–223), concerns the type of evidence that can be used to demonstrate that languages are related, while Ch. 8, ‘The philosophical-psychological-typological-evolutionary approach to language relationships’ (224–33), is a brief discussion of glottogonic thought. Ch. 9, ‘Assessment of proposed distant genetic relationships’ (234–96), and Ch. 10, ‘Beyond the comparative method?’ (297–329), evaluate distant genetic relationships. Ch. 11, ‘Why and how do languages diversify and spread?’ (330–63), is about the mechanics of and reasons for the diversification of languages and the spread of their speakers. Ch. 12, ‘What can we learn about the earliest human language by comparing languages known today?’ (364–93), discusses the relationship between modern languages and how they can be used to make inferences about the earliest forms of human language, while the final chapter, ‘Conclusions: Anticipating the future’ (394–403), summarizes the book. There is an appendix about hypothesized distant genetic relationships, which provides a useful reference list and some comments about how controversial each proposal is. The book touches on many areas related to language classification within historical linguistics: how questions of classification are bound to reconstruction methodology, how evidence is evaluated, and how much evidence (and what type) constitutes an appropriate demonstration of relationships. For the most part, however, it is concerned more specifically with a certain intellectual tradition and a particular argument over methods. The intellectual tradition is the role of the comparative method in historical linguistics, particularly as practiced in European and American universities. The argument concerns which methods are most accurate and reliable when we wish to use language to find out about past human history, and specifically how we should evaluate the contributions of Joseph Greenberg (see, for example, Greenberg 1966, 1987, 2002, and other publications). The methods and results of Greenberg’s multilateral comparisons have been comprehensively discredited. Critics have pointed to numerous problems in methodology, data, and assumptions (Matisoff 1990, Campbell 1997, Ringe 1999), that is, at all levels of the enterprise. In this book, the focus on tying arguments back to Greenberg’s errors (42–43, 57–58, 62–63, 66, 79–80, 127ff., etc.) at times draws the reader’s attention from points of more general history and developments of individual families. [End Page 706...

Grammatical person and the variable syntax of Old English personal pronouns

The variable positioning of bare personal pronouns in Old English prose remains something of a mystery. In the role of prepositional object, for example, these elements are often found in positions where other prepositional object types are rarely attested. This article reports the results of an empirical study of a correlation between the variable placement of these pronouns and their specification for grammatical person. By demonstrating that this correlation defies a number of independent explanations, it is argued that person is an important aspect of the syntax of these constituents. The identification of two further correlations, one involving narrative mode and the other involving the relative positioning of preposition and verb, further demonstrates the value of quantitative methods in historical linguistics.

UNTANGLING THE MANY ROOTS OF WEST AFRICAN MANGROVE RICE FARMING: RICE TECHNOLOGY IN THE RIO NUNEZ REGION, EARLIEST TIMES TO c. 1800

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on the ancient past of coastal Guinea's Rio Nunez region, a coastal rice-growing region virtually unexplored by studies of West African rice and rice farmers. It argues that coastal cultivators have adapted mangrove rice-farming systems in situ for approximately the past 1,000 years, a historical period pre-dating the European travelers' accounts on which the current literature heavily relies. Rather than diffusing from the interior, these specialized farming systems grew organically out of land-use systems. Using the comparative method of historical linguistics and cultural vocabulary, the study establishes different stages in coastal farmers' experimentation, adaptation and specialization in the coastal environment and approximates historical dates when the different stages occurred. And with botanical and biological studies of mangrove vegetation, the study distinguishes between the softer, spongy roots of white mangroves and hard, twisted roots of red mangroves. The interdisciplinary evidence reveals that knowledge of white mangroves was an early formative stage in cultivators' fabrication of coastal land-use systems. Lastly, from an examination of loanwords, the study discusses the important contributions made by Mande groups, who speak the Susu language in the Rio Nunez region, in intensifying mangrove rice-farming systems indigenous to the coast and extending them from zones of white to those of red mangroves. The interdisciplinary methods and sources enable the study to capture localized experimentation and innovation as continuous processes, thereby breaking with the current literature's emphasis on diffusion from the interior to the coast.

Linguistics for Archaeologists: a Case-study in the Andes

In the previous issue of CAJ, Heggarty (2007) set out how certain key principles and methods of historical linguistics can be exploited to open up another window on the past, from a perspective quite different and complementary to that offered by the archaeological record. Following this up, we turn here to an ideal case-study for exploring how the various patterns in linguistic (pre-)histories can be matched with their most plausible correlates in the archaeological data. Beyond our initial illustration of the Incas we now look further afield, to set the sequence of major civilizations of the Andes into its linguistic context, tracing the expansion trajectories of the main Andean language families further back in time, stage by stage, ultimately to their most plausible original homelands. The linguistic story emerges starkly at odds with assumptions widely held among archaeologists of the region. Indeed we encounter a paradigm case of how only a radical rethinking can reconcile our two disciplines' findings into a single, coherent, holistic prehistory for a human population — in the Andes, a prize now tantalizingly within our reach.

On Cladistic Reconstruction of Linguistic Trees through Vowel Data

Evolutionary biology and historical linguistics both aim at inferring historical relationships between objects: their genetic affiliation and/or their convergence or mutual borrowing of traits. The similarity of the methodologies developed in each field – cladistics in biology and comparatism in linguistics – is striking. However, the comparative method is specifically applied to lexical data and so fails to analyze language relationships directly through another material, phonological data for instance. The cladistic approach appears then as a good alternative to overcome this particular limitation, since it is not specific to a particular type of data. This study focuses on vowel systems to reconstruct evolutionary linguistic trees. It is based on typologies of the vowel space structure (Vallée, 1994). The phonological data used are those of the UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database (UPSID) developed by Maddieson (1984). We suggest a cladistics coding based on the Dispersion-Focalization Theory (Schwartz et al., 1997) and in agreement with computer models for vowel systems emergence by self-organization (De Boer, 2000).The trees inferred by this procedure are compared to those obtained with the classical comparative method of historical linguistics. Factors possibly responsible for the topologies of these trees are investigated and the efficiency of the suggested coding is discussed.

New Parameters in Historical Linguistics, Philology, and Culture History

The Comparative Method in historical linguistics may in favorable circumstances be extended to comparative historical poetics and comparative historical ethnosemanticsthe 'new comparative philology'. The vocabulary of some cases is examined in the texts: 'custom' from 'own (*swelo-) established usage' and its pragmatic linkage to reciprocal interpersonal relations in Indo-European society. Examination of new facts in this light motivates the inclusion of Hittite in the same Indo-European ideology. Linguistic comparison may extend to higher units than sounds and forms; several are proposed which permit the reconstruction of formulaic phrases, whole complex sentences, and even proto-texts or text fragments. The new parameters of poetics and ethnosemantics permit a precision in historical linguistics hitherto impossible.*

A Decade of Morphology and Word Formation

to the internal structure of words. This article will comprise a review of that work. My review pretends neither to complete­ ness nor to impartiality. I have tried instead to take what seem to me to be the important developments and form them into a reasonably coherent picture of the field as it stands. Those I have omitted may enjoy the revenge of history. Morphology is one of the oldest concerns of linguistics. The term morpholo­ gy was coined in the early nineteenth century to refer generally to any science whose main object is form; the first specifically linguistic use dates from this early period and unlike many other terms its meaning has not changed signifi­ cantly in the interval since. Morphology was central to nineteenth century linguistics for two reasons. First, traditional gramm ar, out of which modern linguistics grew, had been morphologically based, as all of us know too well who have learned their Latin declensions and conjugations. Second, the comparative method of historical linguistics, which provided the most spectacular successes of nineteenth cen­ tury linguistics, which indeed made linguistics into a respectable modern

The Comparative Method in Historical Linguistics

The Comparative Method in Historical Linguistics