Affiliation:
1. Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Breisgau , Germany
2. Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen , Tubingen , Baden-Württemberg , Germany
Abstract
Abstract
In this paper, we combine several statistical techniques (multivariate probit models, Gaussian processes, and phylogenetic regression) into a new approach for exploring the areal patterns associated with the presence and absence of typological features. This model allows us to estimate and control for areal and genetic effects, the correlations between features, and their expected frequency of occurrence in the data. We use this model to explore the distribution of consonants in African languages, inferring several linguistic areas which have been proposed in the literature. Our results suggest that the combination of these methods is a promising new way of approaching language contact.
Funder
European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
DFG Center for Advanced Studies ‘Words, Bones, Genes, Tools’, and the Emmy Noether project ‘Bayesian modelling of spatial typology’
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics
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