Tree or wave?

[Larry Trask]

Lloyd Anderson writes:

[on the policy of using a tree-model presentation of the IE family]

>  But as a result or conclusion to be reported to non-specialists,
>  I believe the policy proposed above is a quite pernicious policy.
>  We should rather be conservative and report what we actually have evidence
>  for, that is the weakest hypothesis that is sufficient to account for the
>  data,
>  not anything unnecessarily stronger than that.

Er -- "pernicious"?

Well,  the *weakest* hypothesis consistent with the data here is the one we
adopt: the IE languages are descended from a single common ancestor, PIE.

No weaker hypothesis can account for the data.

The links among the languages are due to chance?  Falsified.

The links are due to borrowing?  Falsified.

The links are due to extensive language mixing?  Falsified.

The only hypothesis that accounts for the data is descent from a single common
ancestor.  End of story.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk