Lexistat A Pascal Program for Creating Lexicostatistical Exercises
Main Article Content
Abstract
Glottoch.ronology and the probabil lstlc model of lexicostatistics have been praised and damned over the years ,;.ince tnei.r formulation and develop- ment by Morris Swadesh in the 1950s (e.g., 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955). A host of summaries, critiques, refinements and applications th.roughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s testify to the lnteres.t and skepticism aroused by this statistical approach to the study of language history through the calibra- tion of lexical loss (e.g., Lees 1953, Hoijer 1956, Olmstead 1957,
Hymes 1960, Bergland and Vogt 1962, Chretien 1962, Dyen 1962, Diebold 1964, Dyen 1975, Georges 1975, Munro 1978).
Research relying solely or largely on lexi.cos.tatlstlcs has tapered off considerably ln the past ten years--for a variety of reasons. re 1ated to continuing crtticisms of the validity of Its ass.umptlons and the reliability of i.ts. empirical base. ·However, the purpos.e of th.is paper ls not to raise and review these lss.ues but t,o offer my colleagues in linguistic instruction an additional resource for dealing with tnem i:n the classroom.
What I want to do in th.is paper, then, i.s to describe a program have written in Pascal for generating exercises in lexicostatistlcs. In a general course I teach in anthropological linguistics, the program has provided an interesting point of departure for discussing a number of issues in historical 1 inguistlcs and in the interconnections of 1 inguistlcs, cultural anthropology and archaeology.
Downloads
Article Details
The Indiana University Linguistics Club Working Papers (the "Publisher") and Author(s) agree as follows.
1. Publication and Promotion: In consideration of the Publisher's agreement to publish the Work, Author hereby grants and assigns to Publisher the non-exclusive right to print, publish, reproduce, or distribute the Work throughout the world in all means of expression by any method known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. Author further grants Publisher the right to use Author's name in association with the Work in published form and in advertising and promotional materials.
2. Copyright: Copyright of the Work remains in the Author's name.
3. Prior Publication and Attribution: Author agrees not to publish the Work in print form prior to publication of the Work by the Publisher. Author agrees to notify IULCWP before publishing the Work elsewhere.
4. Author Representations: The Author represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author's original Work and that the Author has full power to enter into this Agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property of another; (c) contains no material that is obscene, libelous, or defamatory. Author shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss of expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.
5. Licensing and Reuse: Reuse of the published Work will be governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ). This lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the Work non-commercially; although new works must acknowledge the original IULCWP publication and be non-commercial, they do not have to be licensed on the same terms.