word order typology in "Nature" - more typology and phylogeny in creoles

[Peter Bakker]

Bill Croft <wcroft at UNM.EDU> writes:
>I think typologists should welcome this effort to marry phylogeny and typology, even if we remain unconvinced of the particular result in this paper.

Dear all
Another recent paper that uses phylogenetic networks in typology is:

Bakker, Peter, Aymeric Daval-Markussen, Mikael Parkvall & Ingo Plag. 2011. 
Creoles are typologically distinct from noncreoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 26(1): 5-42.

The distinctness of creoles among the languages of the world is, I think, obvious to typologists, but it is very
controversial among creolists - one gets the impression that 90 % of creolists believe that creoles are typologically just like any
other natural language. I think we show rather convincingly that creoles ARE a typological grouping, by checking supposed creole
features (quite a few of which are in fact found only in a minority of creoles) against a sample of the languages of the world,
selecting the morphologically least elaborate language from a set of superphyla. We also used WALS features and added a 
sample of creoles. In both case studies, the creoles stand out quite clearly - in fact more so than most genetic or areal groupings. 
	If you are interested in the paper and you don't have access to JPCL, I am happy to send you an electronic offprint at request.
Peter Bakker (linpb at hum.au.dk)

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