In:Quantitative Approaches to Linguistic Diversity: Commemorating the centenary of the birth of Morris Swadesh
Edited by Søren Wichmann and Anthony P. Grant
[Benjamins Current Topics 46] 2012
► pp. 87–111
On using qualitative lexicostatistics to illuminate language history
Some techniques and case studies
Published online: 26 September 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.46.06gra
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.46.06gra
Following certain aspects of the work on lexicostatistics carried out in the 1960s and published thereafter (Hooley 1971, Miller et al. 1971, Miller 1984) and thereby working in a tradition which has most recently been practised by Ringe et al. (1997, 2001), among others, I maintain that much of lasting value can be learned about linguistic interrelationships by using techniques which have been developed in work on qualitative (rather than merely quantitative) lexicostatistics, using character-based methods.
