Approaches to Measuring Linguistic Differences (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs)

Hardcover, viii + 545 pages, NOT ex-library. Fine condition, book is clean and bright throughout with firm binding and unmarked text; free of inscriptions and stamps. Issued without a dust jacket. Shipping weight over 1kg. -- This collection addresses the theory and practice of quantifying linguistic variance, situated at the nexus of traditional comparative inquiry and modern, data-intensive computational methods. The volume is organized into two distinct but interrelated sections. The first, "Case studies," demonstrates the broad applicability of quantitative measurements across diverse linguistic domains and research questions. These chapters apply distance-based metrics to core problems in genetic classification and subgrouping for language families such as Arawakan, Dravidian, and Tibeto-Kanauri, and investigate the placement of divergent branches within Indo-European. Beyond genealogy, these methods are extended to predict second-language acquisition difficulty, analyze socially motivated pronunciation differences in dialectometry, and examine the diachronic stability of specific semantic domains like body part terminology in Athapaskan languages. The second section, "Methods and tools," delves into the technical and theoretical underpinnings of these measurements. It surveys a range of methodologies, from established algorithms like Levenshtein distance and phylogenetic inference to novel approaches using parallel texts for morphosemantic comparison, network analysis of bilingual dictionaries, and information-theoretic modeling of sound change. This section also offers critical perspectives, evaluating the shortcomings of "black-box" techniques, the impact of feature dependencies in typological databases, and the importance of semantic control in calculating aggregated lexical distances. The volume also introduces key data resources, such as the Intercontinental Dictionary Series, arguing for a move beyond short word lists. Ultimately, this collection serves not just as a survey of current practices but as a call for greater methodological rigor, advocating for the development of robust evaluation standards to advance a more cohesive field of computational comparative linguistics. -- Contents: Introduction - The Why and How of Measuring Linguistic Differences; Case Studies - Contrasting Linguistics and Archaeology in the Matrix Model: GIS and Cluster Analysis of the Arawakan Languages / G. Carling; Predicting Language-Learning Difficulty / M. Cysouw; How Aberrant Are Divergent Indo-European Subgroups? / F. Josephson; Measuring Socially Motivated Pronunciation Differences / J. Nerbonne; Distance-Based Phylogenetic Inference Algorithms in the Subgrouping of Dravidian Languages / T. Rama; Carving Tibeto-Kanauri by Its Joints: Using Basic Vocabulary Lists for Genetic Grouping of Languages / A. Saxena; Effect of Linguistic Distance Across Indo-European Mother Tongues on Learning Dutch as a Second Language / Job Schepens; Using Semantically Restricted Word-Lists to Investigate Relationships Among Athapaskan Languages / C. Snoek; Languages with Longer Words Have More Lexical Change / S. Wichmann; Methods and Tools - Intercontinental Dictionary Series: Rich and Principled Database for Language Comparison / L. Borin; Towards Automated Language Classification: A Clustering Approach / A. Buch; Dependency-Sensitive Typological Distance / H. Hammarstrom; Degrees of Semantic Control in Measuring Aggregated Lexical Distances / K. Heylen; Word Similarity, Cognation, and Translational Equivalence / G. Kondrak; Comparing Linguistic Systems of Categorisation / W.B. McGregor; Black Box Approaches to Genealogical Classification and Their Shortcomings / J. Prokic & S. Moran; Semantic Typologies by Means of Network Analysis of Bilingual Dictionaries / I. Sejane & S. Eger; Measuring Morphosemantic Language Distance in Parallel Texts / B. Wälchli & R. von Waldenfels; Information-Theoretic Modeling of Etymological Sound Change / H. Wettig; Index.…