1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451380703321

Autore

McMahon April M. S

Titolo

Language classification by numbers [[electronic resource] /] / April McMahon and Robert McMahon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2005

ISBN

1-280-75849-X

9786610758494

0-19-153536-2

1-4294-7088-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (284 p.)

Collana

Oxford linguistics

Altri autori (Persone)

McMahonRobert <1964->

Disciplina

401/.2

Soggetti

Language and languages

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-253) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; 1 How do Linguists Classify Languages?; 2 Lexicostatistics; 3 Tree-based Quantitative Approaches: Computational Cladistics; 4 Tree-based Quantitative Approaches: Sublists; 5 Correlations Between Genetic and Linguistic Data; 6 Climbing Down from the Trees: Network Models; 7 Dating; 8 Quantitative Methods Beyond the Lexicon; References; Index

Sommario/riassunto

This book considers how languages have traditionally been divided into families, and asks how they should be classified in the future. It tests current theories and hypotheses, shows how new ideas can be formulated, and offers a series of demonstrations that the new techniques applied to old data can produce convincing results. It will be of great practical interest to all those concerned with the classification and diffusion of languages in fields such as comparative linguistics,. archaeology, genetics, and anthropology. - ;This book considers how languages have traditionally been divided int