Basic vocabulary and Bayesian phylolinguistics: Issues of understanding and representation

Greenhill, Simon J.; Gray, Russell D.

doi:10.1075/dia.29.4.05gre

Article published In: Diachronica
Vol. 29:4 (2012) ► pp.523–537

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Basic vocabulary and Bayesian phylolinguistics

Issues of understanding and representation

Simon J. Greenhill | Australian National University

Russell D. Gray | University of Auckland

Published online: 14 December 2012

https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.29.4.05gre

Donohue et al.’s critique of our work on the origins and spread of the Austronesian language family is marred by misunderstandings. We respond to these by noting that our Bayesian phylogenetic approach: (1) distinguishes between retentions and innovations probabilistically, (2) focuses on basic vocabulary not ‘the lexicon’, (3) eliminates known loanwords, (4) produces results that are congruent with the results of the comparative method and conflict with the scenarios requiring unprecedented amounts of language shift postulated by Donohue et al.

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