Behind Family Trees
Although it has long been recognized that the family tree model is too simplistic to account for historical connections between languages, most computational studies of language history have concentrated on tree-building methods. Here, we employ computational network methods to assess the utility of...
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crbrillap:10.1163/22105832-00402007 2024-09-15T18:32:38+00:00 Behind Family Trees Secondary Connections in Uralic Language Networks Lehtinen, Jyri Honkola, Terhi Korhonen, Kalle Syrjänen, Kaj Wahlberg, Niklas Vesakoski, Outi 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00402007 https://brill.com/view/journals/ldc/4/2/article-p189_1.xml https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/ldc/4/2/article-p189_1.xml unknown Brill Language Dynamics and Change volume 4, issue 2, page 189-221 ISSN 2210-5824 2210-5832 journal-article 2014 crbrillap https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00402007 2024-08-12T04:07:25Z Although it has long been recognized that the family tree model is too simplistic to account for historical connections between languages, most computational studies of language history have concentrated on tree-building methods. Here, we employ computational network methods to assess the utility of network models in comparison with tree models in studying the subgrouping of Uralic languages. We also compare basic vocabulary data with words that are more easily borrowed and replaced cross-linguistically (less basic vocabulary) in order to find out how secondary connections affect computational analyses of this language family. In general, the networks support a treelike pattern of diversification, but also provide information about conflicting connections underlying some of the ambiguous divergences in the trees. These are seen as reflections of unclear divergence patterns (either in ancestral protolanguages or between languages closely related at present), which pose problems for a tree model. The networks also show that the relationships of closely related present-day languages are more complex than what the tree models suggest. When comparing less basic with basic vocabulary, we can detect the effect of borrowing between different branches (horizontal transfer) mostly between and within the Finnic and Saami subgroups. We argue that the trees obtained with basic vocabulary provide the primary pattern of the divergence of a language family, whereas networks, especially those constructed with less basic vocabulary, add reality to the picture by showing the effect of more complicated developments affecting the connections between the languages. Article in Journal/Newspaper saami Brill Language Dynamics and Change 4 2 189 221 |
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Although it has long been recognized that the family tree model is too simplistic to account for historical connections between languages, most computational studies of language history have concentrated on tree-building methods. Here, we employ computational network methods to assess the utility of network models in comparison with tree models in studying the subgrouping of Uralic languages. We also compare basic vocabulary data with words that are more easily borrowed and replaced cross-linguistically (less basic vocabulary) in order to find out how secondary connections affect computational analyses of this language family. In general, the networks support a treelike pattern of diversification, but also provide information about conflicting connections underlying some of the ambiguous divergences in the trees. These are seen as reflections of unclear divergence patterns (either in ancestral protolanguages or between languages closely related at present), which pose problems for a tree model. The networks also show that the relationships of closely related present-day languages are more complex than what the tree models suggest. When comparing less basic with basic vocabulary, we can detect the effect of borrowing between different branches (horizontal transfer) mostly between and within the Finnic and Saami subgroups. We argue that the trees obtained with basic vocabulary provide the primary pattern of the divergence of a language family, whereas networks, especially those constructed with less basic vocabulary, add reality to the picture by showing the effect of more complicated developments affecting the connections between the languages. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lehtinen, Jyri Honkola, Terhi Korhonen, Kalle Syrjänen, Kaj Wahlberg, Niklas Vesakoski, Outi |
spellingShingle |
Lehtinen, Jyri Honkola, Terhi Korhonen, Kalle Syrjänen, Kaj Wahlberg, Niklas Vesakoski, Outi Behind Family Trees |
author_facet |
Lehtinen, Jyri Honkola, Terhi Korhonen, Kalle Syrjänen, Kaj Wahlberg, Niklas Vesakoski, Outi |
author_sort |
Lehtinen, Jyri |
title |
Behind Family Trees |
title_short |
Behind Family Trees |
title_full |
Behind Family Trees |
title_fullStr |
Behind Family Trees |
title_full_unstemmed |
Behind Family Trees |
title_sort |
behind family trees |
publisher |
Brill |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00402007 https://brill.com/view/journals/ldc/4/2/article-p189_1.xml https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/ldc/4/2/article-p189_1.xml |
genre |
saami |
genre_facet |
saami |
op_source |
Language Dynamics and Change volume 4, issue 2, page 189-221 ISSN 2210-5824 2210-5832 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00402007 |
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Language Dynamics and Change |
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4 |
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2 |
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189 |
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221 |
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1810474374290997248 |