[Lingtyp] small language families and typological rarities

[Erich Round]

Hi Peter,

The following paper gives the statistical argument for why this is expected for isolated populations (which is not exactly what you asked, but close) and links it to related ideas beyond linguistics:

Eric Meinhardt, Robert Malouf, and Farrell Ackerman (2023) “Morphology Gets More and More Complex, Unless It Doesn’t”
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108807951.009

All the best,
Erich


From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Peter Arkadiev <peterarkadiev at yandex.ru>
Date: Monday, 20 November 2023 at 10:55
To: Linguistic Typology <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: [Lingtyp] small language families and typological rarities
Dear typologists,

I vaguely recall having read or heard that it has been claimed that small language families and language isolates have a greater probability of possessing typologically unusual and rare features, however, I cannot locate any references discussing this issue (the two volumes of Rara et Rarissima published in 2010 do not, as far as I can tell). I would be grateful for any references that either espouse such a claim or explicitly disconfirm it.

Thanks in advance!

Peter

--
Peter Arkadiev, PhD Habil.
https://peterarkadiev.github.io/

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