The UPenn IE Tree (the stem)

[Dr. John E. McLaughlin]

Steve Long wrote:

> I wrote:
> <<That is the way this tree is set up.  Whatever is "innovating"
> gets a node
> and a name.  But there is always a non-innovating language left
> over, for the
> next node to innovate way from.>>

> But I'm pretty sure (I may be wrong) that in the Stammbaum the
> 'innovations'
> considered always attach to the node or branch.  That was the way it was
> described in the first posts on all this - with the branch
> representing the
> "unshared innovation."

The classic approach to the subgrouping of a language family and drawing a
tree is to identify "shared innovations".  "Shared retentions" do not count
in identifying a linguistic unit.  However, there is NO standard method of
identifying which branch represents the innovating language and which does
not.  The UPenn IE tree, as drawn, is really an artificial shape, as are all
trees drawn with a single central trunk.  Language families are not really
trees with a single main trunk and many smaller branches.  Language families
are bushes that begin dividing shortly above ground and have branches that
go off in many different directions without a central trunk.  The main trunk
approach mimics those common biological diagrams that show all the different
types of life branching off a main trunk that leads to man.  It implies
determinism.  Indo-European trees in Northwestern Europe and the United
States have often been drawn the same way with a main trunk leading to
Germanic.  It's chauvinistic and deterministic as well--the main trunk leads
inexorably to the "top" of the tree--"Germanic-speaking man".  We would be
much better off with drawing bushes.  The family bush drawn on the endplate
of the American Heritage Dictionary is how a relationship chart should look.
Unfortunately, it's hard to do on the internet.

John E. McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
mclasutt at brigham.net

Program Director
Utah State University On-Line Linguistics
http://english.usu.edu/lingnet

English Department
3200 Old Main Hill
Utah State University
Logan, UT  84322-3200

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