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Adding typology to lexicostatistics: A combined approach to language classification

  • Dik Bakker , André Müller , Viveka Velupillai , Søren Wichmann , Cecil H. Brown , Pamela Brown , Dmitry Egorov , Robert Mailhammer , Anthony Grant and Eric W. Holman
Published/Copyright: May 20, 2009
Linguistic Typology
From the journal Volume 13 Issue 1

Abstract

The ASJP project aims at establishing relationships between languages on the basis of the Swadesh word list. For this purpose, lists have been collected and phonologically transcribed for almost 3,500 languages. Using a method based on the algorithm proposed by Levenshtein (Cybernetics and Control Theory 10: 707–710, 1966), a custom-made computer program calculates the distances between all pairs of languages in the database. Standard software is used to express the relationships between languages graphically. The current article compares the results of our lexicon-based approach with the results of a similar exercise that takes the typological variables contained in the WALS database as a point of departure. We establish that the latter approach leads to even better results than the lexicon-based one. The best result in terms of correspondence with some well-established genetic and areal classifications, however, is attained when the lexical and typological methods are combined, especially if we select both the most stable Swadesh items and the most stable WALS variables.

Keywords:: family tree; inflection; lexicon; lexicostatistics; linguistic areas; linguistic atlas; phylogenetic classification; syntax; time-stability
Correspondence address: Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, LA1 4YT Lancaster, U.K.; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Institut für Anglistik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Otto-Behaghel-Straße 10 B, 35394 Gießen, Germany; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, U.S.A; e-mail:
Correspondence address: 26 Willow Green Drive, Jackson, TN 38305, U.S.A; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Laboratorija kognitivnyx nauk, Filologičeskij fakul'tet, Kazanskij gosudarstvennyj universitet, ul. Kremlevskaja, 18, 420008, Kazan', Russian Federation; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Englische Sprachwissenschaft, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Universitätsallee 1, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Department of English and History, Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk L39 4QP, U.K.; e-mail:
Correspondence address: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1563, U.S.A.; e-mail:
Received: 2008-08-02
Revised: 2008-12-28
Published Online: 2009-05-20
Published in Print: 2009-May

©Walter de Gruyter

Articles in the same Issue

  1. More on the indefinite-interrogative affinity: The view from embedded non-finite interrogatives
  2. The world atlas of language structures
  3. WALS values evaluated
  4. Data reduction typology and the bimodal distribution bias
  5. On the (un)suitability of semantic categories
  6. Sampling and genealogical coverage in WALS
  7. Problems testing typological correlations with the online WALS
  8. Using WALS and Jazyki mira
  9. Adding typology to lexicostatistics: A combined approach to language classification
  10. WALS in the university classroom: A review
  11. A note on Gilbert Lazard's review of Geoffrey Haig, Alignment change in Iranian languages (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1515/LITY.2009.009
Keywords for this article
family tree; inflection; lexicon; lexicostatistics; linguistic areas; linguistic atlas; phylogenetic classification; syntax; time-stability

Articles in the same Issue

  1. More on the indefinite-interrogative affinity: The view from embedded non-finite interrogatives
  2. The world atlas of language structures
  3. WALS values evaluated
  4. Data reduction typology and the bimodal distribution bias
  5. On the (un)suitability of semantic categories
  6. Sampling and genealogical coverage in WALS
  7. Problems testing typological correlations with the online WALS
  8. Using WALS and Jazyki mira
  9. Adding typology to lexicostatistics: A combined approach to language classification
  10. WALS in the university classroom: A review
  11. A note on Gilbert Lazard's review of Geoffrey Haig, Alignment change in Iranian languages (2008)
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