Assumptions in Computing phylogenies

[Hans Holm]

>Proceeding on the idea that if a mass of the most genetically related
>portions of two language are very close, then the languages themselves
>must be close in time.

.. this ad-hoc idea is too simple. As soon as two languages split/depart,
the amount of losses in each of them may differ extremely, as we all know,
but often forget.

>The surprise is that cladistics groups the lungfish not with the salmon
>but with the cow.

.. you must not really cite any misuse of cladistics; and: there is no one
"cladistics", of which Warnow on the one side of the Atlantic and Bandelt
on the other are the youngest offsprings.

>The problem with applying cladistics to historical linguistics as
>reflected in IE scholarship (the one that the UPenn tree ran into) is
>that the methods are so thoroughly contrasted in the nature of their
>data.

.. Try to argue with Ringe. /We all/ do not have the data.

Regards
Hans J. Holm
D-30629 Hannover