Yakhontov

[H. Mark Hubey]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Alexis Manaster-Ramer wrote:
>
>
> Anyway, Larry also relates two claims supposed to have been by Yakhontov
> about these lists in relation to language relatedness, one of which are:
>
> Claim 1.
> If two languages are genetically related, then the proportion of cognates
> in the 35-word list will always be greater than the proportion in the
> 65-word list.

I think it is easy to straighten out this problem.

Let's define two variables;

P := the proportion in the 35 list is greater than or equal to
              the proportion in the 65-list

R:= The languages are related (genetically)

Then claim 1 is

        R => P

where => is the implication sign of logic.


> Claim 2 acc. to Larry:
> "If the proportion of phonetic resemblances in the 35-word list is higher
> than the proportion of phonetic resemblances in the 65-word list, then
> this is evidence that the languages are related".

This makes the claim that;

        P => R

Obviously this is not equivalent to claim 1 above.


> Actually, what Starostin (1991) has, though, is something quite different:
>
> "But if the percentage of matches (Russian: sovpadenij) is identical [sc.
> in both sublists--AMR] or the percentage of matches (Russian: sovpadenij)
> the 35-word list is less than (or equal to) the proportion of phonetic
> resemblances in the 65-word list, then the parallelism (Russian:
> skhodstvo) between the languages is accidental (i.e., there exists an
> accidental coincidence [Russian: sovpadenie] or the result of active
> contacts and borrowings."

This makes the claim

        P' => R'

This statement via the contrapositive is equivalent to R => P which is
claim 1.


--
Best Regards,
Mark
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