[Corpora-List] Can corpora help to distinguish a dialect and a language?

[Kevin Brubeck Unhammer]

2010/2/15 Dominic Widdows <widdows at google.com>:
> If one tries to define the difference by measuring continuously variable
> amounts of difference, and setting cutoff thresholds for these numbers, one
> will be sure to find that no simple decision boundary "does the right
> thing", and people will continue to tweak, make exceptions, add new rules,
> etc. At least that's what I'd expect to happen and I'd bet good money on it.

In the words of Wierzbicka, Prototypes Save :-)

Peter Trudgill has a nice case study on Norwegian (available from
http://tr.im/Oo9r ) where he tries to “do the ‘impossible’”, to define
the difference between a language and a dialect:


      We are thus able to give an Ausbau definition of what a language
      is: a language is an autonomous standardised variety together
      with all the nonstandard varieties which demonstrate heteronomy
      towards it.

      This definition makes it clear that languages are not only
      cultural constructs but that they are also potentially temporary
      constructs. Because autonomy is a political and cultural rather
      than linguistic phenomenon, varieties can gain and lose
      autonomy. Languages can become dialects, and dialects can become
      languages. Many such examples present themselves […]


I'm not sure that you need such a definition for anything (besides
taxonomy), but the article is recommended reading nonetheless.


--
Kevin Brubeck Unhammer

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