Starostin - s=?iso-8859-1?Q?=E9minaire_?=INALCO - IUF

[pozdniakov.konstantin]

  Linguistique comparative historique au XXIe siécle :

enjeux théoriques et méthodologiques

  Séminaire doctoral et de recherche

responsable Konstantin Pozdniakov, INALCO, LLACAN,

chaire IUF de linguistique historique et comparée

  mardi 3 avril, 16h00-19h00

au Pôle des Langues et Civilisations – 65 rue des Grands Moulins,
Paris 13°,

salle 3.03

George Starostin. Lexicostatistics, glottochronology and genealogical
classifications today.

Lexicostatistics is a method originally proposed by Morris Swadesh to
build relative genetic classifications of languages based on percentages
of related items in their basic lexicon; it is usually inseparable from
glottochronology, used to assign absolute dates of splitting to language
groups based on the assumption of a regular rate of lexical change.

These classificatory techniques have not been overtly popular with
mainstream comparative linguists after an early set of critical works
had undermined their general credibility. Since then, however,
significant process has been achieved in understanding and correcting
the flaws of the original method. The talk focuses on drawing attention
to some of these corrections, such as (a) distinguishing between
externally and internally triggered lexical change, (b) taking a
stricter approach towards the construction of Swadesh lists, (c)
factoring out independent semantic innovation, and (d) taking into
account the relative «stability rates» of different lexical items
on the list. This improved methodology, without significantly cluttering
up the formal apparatus, consistently yields results that are not only
more credible than Swadesh's original procedure, but are also much more
in line with standard comparative-historical linguistics. Many of these
corrections have now been implemented in the construction of the Global
Lexicostatistical Database, a unified set of annotated Swadesh wordlists
that is intended to become a solid basis for an overall genetic
classification of the world's languages (the talk incorporates a brief
demonstration of the Database).


15.05. 16h00-19h00. Laurent Sagart. La reconstruction du chinois 
archaïque : une approche plus comparative. 
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