This paper investigates diatopic variation in a historical corpus of German. Based on equivalent word forms from different language areas, replacement rules and mappings are derived which describe the relations between these word forms. These rules and mappings are then interpreted as reflections of morphological, phonological or graphemic variation. Based on sample rules and mappings, we show ...

Introduction In this 1986 book, Sheila Embleton surveys the development and use of statistical techniques in historical linguistics. She argues that any successful lexicostatistic model must incorporate word borrowing rates. A computational model for family tree reconstruction using borrowing is introduced, building on ideas of Sankoff (Sankoff 1972). Embleton outlines future uses of lexicostat...

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 a...

Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG) is an open-source computational grammar formalism that is becoming increasingly popular for studying the history and evolution of language. This demonstration shows how FCG can be used to operationalise the cultural processes and cognitive mechanisms that underly language evolution and change.

Recent years have seen rapid advancement in our understanding of the phonology and grammar of Classic Ch’olan and the distribution of Lowland Mayan languages in the Classic period. The control over the data has advanced to such an extent that Classic Ch’olan should no longer be considered chiefly a product of reconstruction, but rather a language in its own right, providing fresh input to histo...

This handsome collection (Chinese title being pu tong yu yan xue ren wu zhi) consists of eighteen articles devoted to eighteen linguists. It can be roughly divided into four sections, i.e. (1)Western European linguists (1-90), (2) American linguists (91-112), (3) Slavic linguists (113-172), and (4) Chinese linguists (173-213). The section onWesternEuropean linguists introduces Ferdinandde Sauss...

Corpus Linguistics 25 Years on, however may be a bit misleading, as only Part I really provides the historical account many readers might be looking for. Parts II and III really more offer a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art, not unlike conference proceedings. However, editor Roberta Facchinetti has skilfully managed to maintain a well-rounded topical spread over the contributions. In do...

This chapter gives an overview of language variation and how the dynamics of language are explored through formal models. It briefly outlines the dimensions over which language structures can vary, then looks at some of the very different ways in which language change has been investigated (sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, evolutionary linguistics). It describes how dynamic models of c...

Large-scale digitization efforts and the availability of computational methods, including text mining and information visualization, have enabled new approaches to historical research. However, we lack case studies of how these methods can be applied in practice and what their potential impact may be. Trading Consequences is an interdisciplinary research project between environmental historians...