http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68558 Mon, 11 May 2026 23:49:58 GMT 2026-05-11T23:49:58Z https://publikationen.uni-tuebingen.de:443/xmlui/bitstream/id/9840cfbe-8050-4fe4-b135-f1e14bf0a60b/ http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68558 http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68704 Mathematical modeling of grammatical diversity supports the historical reality of formal syntax Longobardi, Giuseppe; Ceolin, Andrea; Bortolussi, Luca; Guardiano, Cristina; Irimia, Monica Alexandrina; Michelioudakis, Dimitris; Radkevich, Nina; Sgarro, Andrea Recent studies have taken advantage of computational techniques to investigate the evolution of Indo-European languages [1-3]. However, these methods are not able to overcome the time constraints on lexical evolution, which limit a broader application of the Classical Comparative Method, and therefore cannot be used above the family level. For this reason, evidence from cross-family relationships must come from other domains (e.g. phonetics, [4, 5]). Reference [6] shows that another domain, syntax, is a potential source for cross-family comparison. In this paper, we evaluate the method proposed in [6], the PCM, and argue through a random generation of possible grammars that syntactic distances can be useful to detect signals of historical relatedness above the Indo-European level, within some confidence probabilistic intervals. Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68704 2016-03-07T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68703 Ancestry sampling for Indo-European phylogeny and dates Rama, Taraka The date of the root of the Indo-European language family received much attention due to the application of Bayesian phylogenetic methods since the beginning of the last decade. The inferred root date of the family moved along with the development of new methods and better data. In this paper, I compare two dating techniques known as node-dating and total evidence dating for the Indo-European language family. I find that the total evidence dating based on a birth death tree infers age which is consistent with the Steppe hypothesis of spread of Indo-European languages. Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68703 2016-03-07T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68702 River thinking: Arawakan and Pano-Tacanan in the Upper Amazon Transition Area Muysken, Pieter; van Gijn, Rik This paper studies whether being present in communities belonging to a particular river system influences the structural make up of languages spoken on the Upper Amazon (UA), combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The UA has many rivers that spring in the Andes and further east join the Amazon. We have coded 76 languages for 23 features (phonology, syntax). Both phylogeny and river system can be taken into account, and phylogeny is overall a better predictor for the characters studied. However, a number of innovations within specific phylogenies in Arawakan and Pano-Tacanan can be accounted for as influence of the river system where a language is spoken. Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68702 2016-03-07T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68644 A test of coding procedures for lexical data with Tup i-Guaran i and Chapacuran languages Chousou-Polydouri, Natalia; Birchall, Joshua; Meira, Sérgio; O'Hagan, Zachary; Michael, Lev Recent phylogenetic studies in historical linguistics have focused on lexical data. However, the way that such data are coded into characters for phylogenetic analysis has been approached in different ways, without investigating how coding methods may affect the results. In this paper, we compare three different coding methods for lexical data (multistate meaning-based characters, binary root-meaning characters, and binary cognate characters) in a Bayesian framework, using data from the Tup ́ı-Guaran ́ı and Chapacuran language families as case studies. We show that, contrary to prior expectations, different coding methods can have a significant impact on the topology of the resulting trees. Wed, 02 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68644 2016-03-02T00:00:00Z