LINGUIST List 21.2826 Wed Jul 07 2010 Diss: Comp Ling/Genetic Classification: Rigon: 'A Quantitative ...' Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfonlinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.    Gabriele Rigon, A Quantitative Approach to the Study of Syntactic Evolution Message 1: A Quantitative Approach to the Study of Syntactic Evolution Date: 06-Jul-2010 From: Gabriele Rigon <gab.rigongmail.com> Subject: A Quantitative Approach to the Study of Syntactic Evolution E-mail this message to a friend Institution: Università di Pisa Program: Ph.D in Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2009 Author: Gabriele Rigon Dissertation Title: A Quantitative Approach to the Study of Syntactic Evolution Dissertation URL: http://etd.adm.unipi.it/theses/available/etd-04262009-142645/ Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics                             Genetic Classification Dissertation Director: Alessandro Lenci Giuseppe Longobardi Dissertation Abstract: In this dissertation a quantitative approach to the study of syntactic evolution is adopted with the goal of illustrating its applicability, its effectiveness and its limits. In particular, the investigation is intended to test diverse quantitative methods of analysis (i.e. phylogenetic procedures) originally designed within molecular biology and population genetics on a syntactic comparative data set, with the objective of reconstructing hypotheses regarding genealogical and areal relationships between languages and of evaluating them in light of traditional descriptions of historical linguistics. On the whole, the quantitative analyses appear to provide good indications of diverse facts: That phylogenetic techniques are to a large extent effectively applicable to the study of syntactic evolution, that the parametric comparison may successfully help shed light on both short- and long-range genealogical relationships, and that traces of proper genealogical relatedness are likely to be preserved (and to be recoverable despite homoplasy, i.e. parallel evolution and contact) at the level of language 'macro-variation'. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 07-Jul-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.